Syria faced war in which countries involved weaponized terrorism: FM

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
28 Feb 2023 16:00
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Syrian Foreign and Expatriates Minister Faisal al-Miqdad speaks at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, saying well-known countries used terrorism against the Syrian people to serve their hostile agendas.

Syria's Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad (Sputnik)

Sparing future generations the scourge of war, as stipulated in the UN Charter, has collided with the Western permanent members of the Security Council evading their obligations and pursuing their efforts to force their power and hegemony and stir up conflicts, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Faisal al-Miqdad said in a video speech addressing 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,” al-Miqdad added.

Those countries' policies have let terrorist organizations such as ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra own chemical weapons and use them several times against the Syrians, which shows the need to deal with the shortcomings in international instruments and joint action away from politicization and misinformation, he noted, adding that this will find a mechanism to coordinate international efforts to confront acts of chemical terrorism.

Al-Miqdad affirmed Syria's renewal of its support for the initiative put forward by Russia to the Conference on Disarmament to combat chemical and biological terrorism and to begin negotiations in the conference on a draft agreement for this purpose based on the Russian text.

Al-Miqdad added that Syria’s experience with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed that the people in charge of running this organization were victims of polarization and political reliance, not to mention their obedience to the West's policies and dictations.

“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,” al-Midad said.

Al-Miqdad added that Syria affirms that the occupation entity and its supporters are hindering the establishment of a free of weapons of mass destruction zone in the Middle East, which requires the United Nations to force it to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty and make all its nuclear facilities subject to the International Atomic Energy Agency's comprehensive safeguards system.

The Western story on the result of the talks on the Iranian nuclear deal ignores the fact that what has happened is the consequence of the United States' withdrawal from the deal and the European countries and EU's failure to fulfill their duties under it, he noted.

He also stressed that the only way to manage the deteriorating situation in the international security environment is by member states complying with international law and the UN Charter and implementing their obligations in the field of arms control, nuclear disarmament, and non-proliferation, away from double standards and narrow political agendas.