“We, the states parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction, as members of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, are deeply concerned about the situation in the OPCW after the publication of the first report of the Investigation and Identification Group on alleged incidents in El Latamn, Syrian Arab Republic, March 24, 25 and 30, 2017, ”the statement said on a Russian Foreign Ministry website.
The document emphasizes that the creation of an investigation and identification group and the methods of its work do not comply with the norms of the convention, and the group’s activity is an invasion of the UN Security Council’s exclusive responsibility.
The statement was signed, in addition to Russia, by Belarus, Burundi, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Iran, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, China, the Union of Comoros, Cuba, Laos, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and the Central African Republic.
Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said that the OPCW's report on Syria confirms that a commission to investigate chemical attacks was created to justify Western aggression against the ATS.