FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Russian Federation Formally Rejects British-Run Change to OPCW

July 1, 2018 (EIRNS)—The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a declaration on June 29 denouncing the vote that gives the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) authority to attribute responsibility for violations of the Chemical Warfare Convention (CWC). This vote was engineered by the United Kingdom, in the Conference of States Parties (CSP) of the CWC and laid the basis for charging the Syrian Arab Republic with violating the CWC even though the only body authorized to make such a determination, the UN Security Council, refused to do so.

The head of the Russian delegation, Georgy Kalamanov, objected to this measure, explaining that “Neither the CSP, nor the Executive Council, nor the Technical Secretariat has a mandate for attributing responsibility for CWC violations,” and that to change this, it is necessary “to make amendments to the CWC in line with its Article XV” because “It is unacceptable to create new commitments for States Parties, which they did not undertake when signing this international treaty.”

Sen. Valentina Matviyenko, president of Russia’s Federation Council (upper house), reported on Rossiya 1 TV network that the British measure is an attempt “to weaken the UN Security Council by depriving it of this function.” This, she said, occurs at a time “when international institutions, international agreements and international rules are being destroyed,” undermining the institutions that “have been responsible for guarding the world against