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Syria Will Not Cooperate with the OPCW New Investigation Team
By Arabi Souri
Global Research, December 09, 2019
Syria News 6 December 2019
Url of this article:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-will-not-cooperate-opcw-new-investigation-team/5697080

OPCW was used before to justify the invasion of Iraq, providing a temporary cover before exposed, to the pariah states in the world is at it again, this time willingly and without death threats to its teams, and this time in refusing to cooperate with the Syrian state on legitimate concerns and real chemical attacks, instead coordinating with al-Qaeda affiliated groups with the supervision of a number of NATO member states, and finally rewriting the report of its teams to suit the narrative of the pariah states.

Refusing to fall preys to the same criminals to justify their illegal attack on yet another Arab state to serve Israel regurgitating the same textbook lie, Syria and its allies, and most of the civilized world, the world with real civilizations, stood up to the newest attempts.

Syria paying the biggest price will refuse to cooperate with the newly formed OPCW team which did not get proper approval from member states of the international organization itself, the Syrian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Faisal al-Mekdad told Kamal Khalaf of Al-Mayadeen in this interview.

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Transcript of the English translation of the interview

The Syrian war is full of undisclosed secrets, perhaps the most prominent of which is the use of chemical weapons.

The case has come to the fore after leaked reports from within the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) about the famous Duma incident indicating the falsification and manipulation of the results, the incident that prompted the Trilateral Alliance of Britain, France, and the USA, to carry out a military aggression against Syrian army positions in April 2018, which raised questions about carrying out the triple aggression before the investigation.

Another remarkable development in the file, the total budget of the international organization for 2020, with an increase of 1.8%, which includes the funding of the new fact-finding team and exceeding its task from documenting to issuing accusations, what exactly is the task of this team?

Moscow has accused Washington and the West of changing the results of the Douma investigation based on leaked emails published by WikiLeaks.The United States defended itself and asserted that it had solid evidence without revealing it, while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stressed that there is no single evidence so far that the Syrian army has used chemical weapons.

What is the truth about what is going on within the international organization concerned and what are the political objectives behind this file?

Welcome to The Game of Nations program.

Q. Dr. Faisal, God bless your time, we are talking about a sensitive file for you, a serious one as well, and a major diplomatic battle you are now fighting in Syria.

If, Dr. Faisal, you allow me to begin with the recent leaks in the file in WikiLeaks, the leaked mail of a member of the investigation team, caused a strong sensation because of what this expert said was manipulation of the report.

What is your position, and how do you view what is said in this leak?

Dr. Faisal Al Meqdad: Thank you, brother Kamal, for hosting, and I salute your viewers everywhere. As you mentioned, this file is very sensitive and delicate, and it has not really begun since yesterday or before yesterday, it started as part of the grand conspiracy against Syria.

Before I touch on what you wanted to talk about, which is the recent WikiLeaks leaks, I would like to say that this file began in 2013, after the terrorist attacks on Syria began and some Western countries began to think about how it could affect Syria’s steadfastness and sacrifices, and it’s confronting the terrorist war waged against it…

On March 19, 2013, armed terrorist groups fired chemical weapons in Khan al-Asal, south of Aleppo, in which 25 members of the Syrian Arab Army were martyred.

On that day, we were following up on this very serious issue at the Foreign Ministry, we immediately informed the United Nations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

What happened next? We began to follow up on the procedures that the United Nations can take only to discover that western countries have prevented the United Nations under its Charter and under its resolutions, by obstructing any role of the United Nations in this file. A period of delay and procrastination began until we reached August 21, 2013, meaning from March until August of that year, until the international mission we were calling for arrived, five complete months passed since this incident, while western countries claim they’re morally committed to preventing any use of chemical weapons.

Q. In this particular attack, there were Russian investigations, Russian experts referred to the launch of the “unguided missile” by what was then known as the “Victory Promises”, and the missile was called “Promises 3” and contained banned chemicals, but at that time the United States refused to acknowledge there were any chemical attacks, later the investigation blamed the Syrian government?

Dr. Faisal Al-Meqdad: No, in that incident, the Syrian state was not blamed, we were the ones who called for an investigation in that incident, but the commission of inquiry headed by Professor Silitström, a Norwegian, arrived after five complete months as I said. What happened was, I was leading the Syrian negotiating team with Professor Siliström and his team from the United Nations, we negotiated for 8 days and decided that on August 21, 2013, the delegation should travel to Aleppo to investigate this incident.

That morning, instead of telling me that he was traveling to Aleppo, Professor Silström told me that there had been an incident of using a chemical weapon in Eastern Ghouta, and that he had been instructed by the United Nations not to go investigate the Khan al-Asal incident and to go to the area where the chemical attack was alleged. Frankly, we were stunned, but as long as the main objective is that the Syrian Arab Republic agrees to investigate any chemical attacks because we consider it a war crime and a crime against humanity, and by the way these (chemical) weapons were used only during the First World War in a restricted manner and were used in the Second World War, The Americans used it, as you know, in the Vietnam War and in a way that still affects, and here I’m talking about chemical weapons and I’m not talking about the nuclear weapons they used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the chemical weapons that killed the forests and the people of Vietnam and the Vietnamese people are still suffering from their effects up to this moment. We didn’t go to Khan al-Asal and we went to Ghouta. At that time, the task was not to determine who used chemical weapons, but we were surprised by that use.

Now I go back to the story of the leaks, these leaks came right after the Douma incident, and by the way we also invited an OPCW investigative team because we joined the OPCW at that time in 2013, and kindly allow me to elaborate on some answers, but I’ll answer all the questions you’re asking. We joined the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and allowed all the inspection teams decided by the OPCW and you know that Mrs. (Sigrid) Kaag, a Dutch national, headed the inspection teams, and at the end of her mission declared the Syrian Arab Republic free of chemical weapons, where we delivered all of these weapons to the OPCW.

There is a secret that I would like to report that we were given an option to destroy these weapons on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic or to transfer them outside the Syrian Arab Republic? Our view at the time was not to destroy it (inside Syria) because if we destroyed it inside Syria, they will say, “You didn’t destroy it.” So we decided to move all the so-called components of this program out of Syria and onboard Western ships, there were Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and American.

Q. The main accusation today against the Syrian Government, as you know, that it has retained part of this stockpile.

Dr. Faisal Al-Meqdad: This is crazy, so let them tell us where is this part? This is crazy. And all the quantities that were used and that we have records of when they entered Syria and when it was destroyed in Syria we presented them to the OPCW but the United States and western countries, especially France and Britain, the countries that committed war crimes by using this type of weapon, saw in these charges a milking cow you can use.

Imagine that we now want, for example, to liberate Idlib from terrorists, they tell us: ‘You have to be careful, because if you use chemical weapons in Idlib, we will take the necessary measures,’ i.e. commit attacks on Syria, i.e., they have decided to use the subject of chemical weapons as a means of military and political blackmail, military and political, and they attacked us, once on the Shayrat Airbase and once on the scientific research center in Damascus Under these pretexts, they only destroyed what the Syrian people built with their sweat to defend their homeland, but I emphasize as chairman of the Syrian National Committee to implement the commitments to Syria under this agreement that Syria is free of all these types of chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction 100% and 1 Million percent, to those who listen to this, and that those who possess these weapons in our region are Israel, which possesses nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. If these countries are sincere in wanting to rid the Middle East of these weapons, the only address of these weapons is Israel.

And if they want to maintain what remains of their credibility, they must go to Israel.

However, we have fulfilled our commitments within the framework of our accession to the OPCW.

Q. Allow me to go back to the work of the organization and your opinion of the work of the organization but I referred to the leaks and I would like to go back to it to hear the comment from your on it, but before that allow me, doctor, to show the viewer what exactly we are talking, what is in the email?

– The British daily Daily Mail published about the whistleblower, a member of the team, published a startling e-mail, sent as an objection to senior officials of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, The e-mail indicates that the official report, written by independent scientists on what happened in Douma, large parts of it have been omitted and shortened to the extent the facts have been distorted by deleting basic information of the report to obscure the fact that the traces of chlorine found on the site were only traces and in forms that could be found in any household bleach.

– The original report by impartial experts was significantly distorted and turned into a completely different report.

– Covering the mismatch between the symptoms alleged to have appeared on the victims at the site and the effects of chemicals that were already found simply do not correspond to the symptoms that appeared in the horrific video clips with the symptoms that may be caused by any of the substances found on the site.

This may be, Dr. Al-Meqdad, the summary of the leaks, but in your estimation, is there a split within the OPCW that a member of the team is leaking such information about the report?

Dr. Faisal Al-Meqdad: There must be a split. Several reports have been submitted on Syria’s implementation of its obligations under its accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention and this person has participated in several investigative missions where Syria has provided unlimited scope for investigating all these events. We have been sending documented information, sometimes almost daily, to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, to the Security Council in New York, to friendly and unfriendly parties about security information about the preparations made by terrorist organizations, whether in northern Syria, in the Aleppo area, in Ghouta Damascus, or in Yarmouk camp and elsewhere where terrorist groups were present, they used chemicals in their war, sometimes against each other. We have given the Organization and its investigators a way to investigate.

But in Douma, it seems that some OPCW investigators can no longer tolerate the lies, in fact, this is what we have come to conclusion in the Syrian National Committee and in the authorities involved in dealing with this issue because the truth was clear.

Q. Do you know who is the owner of the email account?

Dr. Faisal Al-Meqdad: There is a master whose name is clearly announced as British, Mr. Jan Anderson, and the Chemical Weapons Organization summoned and interrogated him, as well as investigated others from the same investigation team who said that their views on the Incident Douma were not properly reflected (in the report), because the decision that the organization has is always to comply with American and Western pressures, otherwise this administration and these investigators who have stood in the other side will not have the opportunity to work in the organization, will be dismissed from their jobs.

At the last conference held a few days ago on 25-27 last month, we raised the possibility of holding a meeting of this team that investigated the events of Douma, and we were surprised by the refusal of all Western countries to agree to conduct this investigation.

Q. Have you requested a hearing on the investigation team in accordance with Article 62 of the Organization?

Dr. Faisal Al-Meqdad: Exactly, for every member of this team to talk about what he saw and what he had investigated, but if the organization was sure that it would not expose it and other team members who were always biased in their investigations, they would have agreed to it.

In addition to all this, I may see in the leak afterward as you mentioned the Daily Mail comes and publishes extensive reports about these lies and false conclusions made by the organization, not produced by the investigators, but by the leadership of the organization, and we know the people who distorted this report and give the impression that American public opinion, especially after the bombing of the Scientific Research Center by the United States, France, and Britain.

Q. Time is running out, there are some very important questions: the quarrel that took place a few days ago between the United States and Russia and you were present in the corridors of the OPCW, the Western countries have confirmed the team and increased its budget, but it has given the investigation team an additional task of identifying the names of those responsible for the chemical attacks, how are you going to deal with this development, which seems to be given to an investigative team as a precedent for the first time, perhaps?

Dr. Faisal Al-Meqdad: This file has sadness, my brother Kamal, as I mentioned began in 2013, but there are attempts in which the United States has been hit, to accuse the Syrian state of using chemical weapons, for example they formed a team they called JIM – Joint Investigation Mechanism- the joint investigation mechanism between the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the Security Council. Eventually, a lot of friends in the Security Council discovered that this team was a liar. The members of the team came to us saying that it’s not possible to accuse Syria of anything, and then when they go to New York and tell some friendly countries in the Security Council that they didn’t find anything, we were all surprised that the report that was being issued was different from what the investigators were saying.

They used this in a way to denote their hatred and to demonstrate their falsification and dosing over the international organization. When did this team end? It ended when the Russian Federation vetoed twice at the Security Council and eliminated this group.

Now that this team has been eliminated, the United States has come and formed another team in the OPCW, and I was present at the fourth extraordinary emergency conference held for this purpose, which means what you said about the identification of the people who directed, ordered and used chemical weapons. This resolution, for the first time since the founding of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 1992, there was a vote in this organization, for the first time, in the sense that weapons of mass destruction pose a great danger to the world and should not be voted on because the whole world agrees that it must be terminated, What happened in that meeting? The number states of OPCW are 193, only 106 of which were present at the emergency meeting, 82 of those voted in favor of this resolution and 24 against, among them were large countries, this resolution did not even receive half of the members of the Chemical Weapons Organization, meaning that it is a fallen and unrecognized decision. We have said that we will not recognize this decision, nor will we cooperate in its implementation because we believe that the reports have been issued, the charges have been issued…

Q. – I understand that you will not receive this team and will not cooperate with it?

Dr. Faisal Al-Meqdad: We will not receive it, we will not cooperate with it, we will not recognize it, and Syria’s position in this area is clear for the OPCW, yet they will now submit a report.

Why don’t we recognize it? All the investigations conducted by this team were sending two teams, one team to areas controlled by the Syrian state and we are dealing with it, and another team was going to Turkey to meet with terrorist groups and with the militants and with the White Helmets that were fabricating all these charges, which were adopted by the United States, Britain and Germany as coordinator of the use of chemical weapons and blame the Syrian state.

The teams were taking into account the investigations that are being conducted in Turkey which accuse the Syrian state of using chemical weapons and did not take a single letter from what we were informing them with, so how do we recognize it and all these investigations are false and unreliable.

Q. Time is running out, but there is a question: the Syrian government accuses armed and terrorist groups of using chemical weapons, do you have information from where it got it and by who? Is there cooperation between them and regional parties or forces to introduce such weapons?

Dr. Faisal Al-Meqdad: Yes, even some terrorist organizations have filmed videos about the method of testing some chemical weapons and we have found barrels that came from regional countries, especially the Turkish regime, which was supplying these organizations with these substances and there are some Arab countries, I do not want to re-mention its scandal now, but Saudi Arabia is one of the countries that supplied these terrorists with chemical substances and we have evidence of that, and the Western countries were not short of support, they were the ones who ordered these countries to deliver these chemicals to justify their attacks on the Syrian state and to make the terrorist war on Syria a success.

– Dr. Faisal Al-Meqdad, Deputy Foreign Minister of Syria, the chemical dossier and allegations of the use of chemical weapons is in your custody, and you are following up on this file, thank you very much for this participation in the Game of Nations program.

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The OPCW has turned itself from the watchdog organization against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to a dog watching for those proliferating and using the weapons of mass destruction and later on accusing the victims.

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