Syria Faced an Unjust War in Which Well-known Countries Employed Terrorism - FM

By Staff, SANA

Sparing future generations, the scourge of war, as stipulated in the UN Charter, has collided with the evasion of the Western permanent members of the Security Council from their obligations and their endeavor to impose their power and hegemony and fuel conflicts, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad said.

The top diplomat made the remarks in a video speech to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

“Syria has faced an unjust war, during which well-known countries employed the weapon of terrorism against the Syrian people, recruited tens of thousands of foreign terrorists and provided them with various kinds of support and weapons, including internationally prohibited ones, to serve their hostile agendas,” Mikdad added.

He also noted that the policies of those countries have allowed terrorist organizations such as Daesh [Arabic for ‘ISIS/ISIL’] and “Jabhat al-Nusra” to possess chemical weapons and use them repeatedly against the Syrians, which highlights the need to address the shortcomings in international instruments and joint action away from politicization and misinformation in order to find a mechanism to coordinate international efforts to confront acts of chemical terrorism.

The minister affirmed that Syria renews its support for the initiative put forward by Russia to the Conference on Disarmament to combat chemical and biological terrorism, and to start negotiations in the conference on a draft agreement for this purpose based on the Russian text.

Mikdad further added that Syria’s experience with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons [OPCW] confirmed that those in charge of managing this organization fell into the trap of polarization and political dependence and their submission to the policies and dictations of Western countries.

“Syria calls on the OPCW member states to undertake, during the next review conference, a responsible and accurate review of the organization’s course of action and to correct clear mistakes and violations of the provisions of the agreement in order to preserve the organization and its future,” Mikdad said.

Mikdad noted that Syria affirms that the occupation entity and its backers are obstructing the establishment of a zone free of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, which requires the United Nations to compel it to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty and subject all its nuclear facilities to the comprehensive safeguards system of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA].

He noted that the Western narration on the outcome of the talks on the Iranian nuclear deal ignores the fact that what has happened is the result of the United States’ withdrawal from the deal and the failure of European countries and the European Union to fulfill their obligations under it.

Mikdad stressed that the only way to overcome the deteriorating situation in the international security environment is the commitment of Member States in word and deed to international law and the UN Charter and the implementation of their obligations in the field of arms control, nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, away from double standards and narrow political agendas.