PARIS (Agencies): At the 97th session of the Exec-utive Council of the Organ-ization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Damascus was accused of using chemical weapons in Sarakib in retaliation for the downed Russian plane, these accusations are absurd and do not stand up to criticism, Alexander Shulgin, Russia’s permanent representative to the organization, told RIA Novosti.
The 97th session of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Proh-ibition of Chemical Weap-ons (OPCW) was held in The Hague on July 6-9.
“During the last session of the Executive Council, the GRI (investigation and identification group – ed.) Presented another portion of its developments, now on the incident in Syrian Sarakib in 2018. The indictments against Damascus did not come as a surprise to anyone,” Shulgin said.
According to him, the “attributes” themselves in the document admit that in fact there was no tactical benefit from the use of chemical weapons for the Syrian government forces.
The Permanent Representative noted that “this does not bother them at all: the order has been received, and generous donations from Western donors are pouring in, so we need to work them out,”
“And, consequently, it is necessary to find a motive that would correspond to a pre-built version of what happened. And here the GRI did not think of anything better how to weave the notorious“ Russian trace ”: they say, it seemed to someone that the chemical attack was a“ revenge ”of the Syrians for the previously shot down Russian plane. The absurdity of this version, as well as of the entire so-called evidence base on which the pseudo-investigation is built, does not stand up to criticism, “Shulgin emphasized.
Third February 2018 in Syria as a result of the shelling of the anti-missile system members of the terrorist organization “Al-Nusra Dzhebhat” * (banned in the Russian Federation) was hit by a plane Su-25SM videoconferencing RF controlled by Roman Filipov. The officer ejected and entered into battle with the terrorists, was wounded and subsequently blew himself up with a grenade.
The OPCW published a report on April 12, which presents the results of an investigation into an incident in the Syrian city of Saraqib on February 4, 2018. It is noted that for the investigation, the mission received testimony from witnesses, analyzed samples collected at the scene of the incident, studied satellite images, and consulted with experts. The OPCW said it has “good reason” to believe that the Syrian Air Force dropped a chlorine bomb on the city of Saraqib in the Idlib region in February 2018, while no factual evidence is provided in the report, such statements have been repeatedly refuted earlier. According to the organization, 12 people were injured as a result of the incident.
Russia and the Syrian government have repeatedly accused the OPCW of biased investigations into incidents in the Arab republic and questioned the conclusions drawn by the technical secretariat.
