Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations

Statement by First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy at UNSC briefing on the Syrian chemical file (resolution 2118)

Mme.President,

The report of OPCW Director-General that was presented by USG Nakamitsu again failed to add any value as compared to the preceding report. This is not surprising if we recall the fact that there is no development of the situation on the ground in terms of the Syrian chemical file – and not through the fault of Damascus, though this is exactly what our Western colleagues will assert today. This lack of development is rather explained by strong unwillingness of OPCW Technical Secretariat to rectify its biased anti-Syrian stance. Every next report keeps replicating uniform clichés and politicized allegations against the Syrian authorities, whereas nothing gets done to correct the mistakes that we pointed at on numerous occasions. I am sure that our Syrian colleagues will tell us more about it today.

There is no point in talking about the contents of the report. Let me only stress that we have lots of objections to the products of the Technical Secretariat, which leaves us but few reasons to view those as sources of information on the Syrian chemical file. We do not accept the fabricated conclusions of the report of the Fact-Finding Mission on the Douma incident, as well as any conclusions made by the illegitimate Investigation and Identification Team. Their only goal is to cast a shadow over Damascus and make sure that all conclusions fit into the political orders of the US and its allies. Connivance of OPCW leadership in response to attempts of the West to make the OPCW a political tool and utilize it for achievement of their opportunistic tasks leads to the degradation of this organization, which used to be a very reputable institution, and causes irreparable damage to its authority.

This blatant and very unflattering situation is further aggravated by the fact that DG Arias avoids making appearances in the Council and refuses to enter into a direct communication with its members. It becomes more and more clear that he has something to hide.  

Mme.President,

Our regular mechanistic discussions of the implementation of resolution 2118 top the chart of the least productive meetings of the Security Council. Basically, we spend two hours monthly to recite word-for-word the same repetitive phrases– so Western capitals can “check the box” and say that the frequency of UNSC meetings where they can condemn the Syrian leadership is maintained. This is obvious, and this depreciates the discussion of implementation of UNSC resolution 2118, and undermines the authority of the Council.  Instead of “beating the air”, we could address situations that appear much more relevant and dynamic.

We urge not to bring the situation to the point of absurdity and optimize the schedule of UN Security Council meetings on the implementation of UNSC resolution 2118.

Thank you.