A picture of the chemical massacre in the city of Arbin in Eastern Ghouta in August 2013 (Al Jazeera)
During the UN Security Council session held on the fifth of this month, Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, considered that discussing the Syrian chemical file every three months was "very sufficient," noting that no progress had been achieved for some time.
In the same context, the Syrian delegate, Qusay al-Dahhak, considered that the insistence on discussing the Syrian chemical program indicates the persistence of the United States, France, and Britain in their “approach based on using this file as a political tool to pressure the Syrian government.”
Al-Dahhak confirmed that the Syrian regime had fulfilled its obligations to completely destroy its chemical stockpile, calling on the international organization to close all outstanding issues related to his country’s chemical file.
This is not the first time that Russia has presented such a proposal, as it began focusing on weakening the Syrian chemical file in the Security Council since the beginning of 2023.
At that time, she criticized the discussion of the file on a monthly basis, and then, during her periodic presidency of the Security Council sessions in April 2023, she decided to drop the session to discuss the Syrian file from the Council’s agenda.
Continuous denial
News and reports began to circulate about the use of chemical weapons in Syria in 2012, but the regime was denying itself the accusation of involvement in the use of these weapons, and this was done by several methods, including:
Denying that chemical attacks occurred at all.
Accusing other parties active in the Syrian arena of carrying out these attacks?
Questioning the professionalism or impartiality of the authorities responsible for the investigation.
Questioning the evidence or mechanisms relied upon in the investigation.
Continued emphasis on the destruction of all chemical weapons stockpiles and production facilities.
In addition to the above, Russia has become accustomed to using its powers and influence in the Security Council to obstruct the formation of committees and missions to investigate the use of chemical weapons in Syria, or to limit the authority of these committees such that their work is limited to specific cases or only proving the incident, without assigning responsibility or using a veto to prevent the renewal of the mandate. These missions continue their work.
It can be said that the efforts of the regime and its allies to disrupt the Syrian chemical file have succeeded in obstructing many steps and have delayed - and are still delaying to a large extent - taking effective steps in holding accountable those responsible for committing this type of crimes in Syria.
Form a team to investigate
The year 2018 witnessed an important development in the course of the Syrian chemical weapons file, as the incident of the use of chemical weapons in the Douma area in the Damascus countryside on April 7, 2018 motivated the international community to make more serious efforts to hold the perpetrators of these attacks in Syria accountable.
This ultimately resulted in the resolution “Addressing the threat arising from the use of chemical weapons”, in June 2018, which was approved by the Conference of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, by a two-thirds majority.
Accordingly, the Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons established the Investigation and Identification Team, which began its investigations in June 2019, with the aim of identifying individuals or entities directly or indirectly involved in the use of chemical weapons in Syria, meaning that the powers of this team are not limited to proving The occurrence of the incident of the use of chemical weapons goes beyond identifying the responsible party.
The important point in the formation and work powers of the investigation team lies not only in the type of powers it enjoys, but also in the fact that its mission is not linked to a specific period of time that requires returning to the Security Council to renew its mandate. Thus, Russia no longer has the power to use its veto power to prevent the renewal of the mandate of these missions.
The investigation team was formed to be affiliated with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and to work on incidents in which the use of chemical weapons was reported in Syria, and its mission ends with the completion of the investigation to prove these incidents and determine who is responsible for them.
The team issued 4 main reports in which it presented the results of its investigations into the use of chemical weapons in Al-Lataminah/in the Hama countryside in March 2017, Saraqeb in the Idlib countryside in February 2018, in Douma in the Damascus countryside in April 2018, and Marea in the Aleppo countryside in September/September. 2015.
The reports explicitly accused the regime of responsibility for using chemical weapons in all the cases it investigated, except for one case in which it accused the Islamic State, which was in Mare’. Work is currently underway to complete investigations in several remaining cases.
A new Russian approach
This mechanism in dealing with the Syrian chemical file missed the opportunity for the regime and its allies to use their usual tools to obstruct investigation efforts, but this prompted them to follow a new approach that began in 2023, in an attempt to disrupt this file by raising controversy about the need for the Security Council to hold monthly sessions to discuss it.
This was followed by intensified efforts to drop the session discussing Syrian chemical weapons from the Security Council’s agenda, and to call for closing this file once and for all.
In addition to the Syrian regime, Russia, China and the UAE participate in this trend, which stated in January 2023 through its representative to the United Nations that “the chemical file in Syria is one of the most politicized files in the Security Council.”
During its periodic presidency of the Security Council sessions in June 2023, the UAE dropped the session dedicated to discussing the chemical weapons file from the agendas of the monthly Security Council meetings, and contented itself with including the session dedicated to discussing political and humanitarian issues.
Investigation progress
There are currently 3 CWC missions with an active mandate to work on CW verification issues, the remainder of several teams and bodies established over the past years.
The Security Council periodically discusses the reports of these missions in sessions designated for this purpose within the agenda of its monthly meetings, in addition to other sessions related to the humanitarian situation and the political situation in Syria.
Despite Russia's claims that there is no progress in this file, reports of international missions showed that tangible progress has been achieved during the last period in investigating the use of chemical weapons in Syria in dozens of cases.
At a time when the regime and its allies are seeking to “cool” the chemical file in the Security Council and international circles, leading to its final closure, the evidence concluded by the reports of international committees continues to support the regime, considering it primarily responsible for the use of these weapons during the past years. from the war in Syria,
System pledges
What further complicates matters for the regime is that many of the allegations of chemical weapons attacks that have already been proven or likely occurred, through investigations by international missions, humanitarian organizations, or research centers, were committed after 2014, that is, after the regime announced and pledged to report all its stockpiles. of chemical weapons and their destruction.
This means that the regime was not truthful in reporting the size of its stockpile of chemical weapons and that it continued to use this weapon even after Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention in October 2013 and announced the destruction of its entire stockpile in 2014, which is what the briefings indicate. And the monthly reports of international committees complaining about the inability to reach the areas they want to investigate, or the regime’s refusal to receive and cooperate with these missions, or the inaccuracy in detecting and destroying its stock of chemical weapons.
As more facts are revealed regarding the use of chemical weapons in Syria and international committees continue to investigate more facts related to this file, whether including investigations aimed at proving the use of chemical weapons or not, or those that go beyond that to trying to determine who is responsible for carrying out these attacks, the regime and the countries Those supporting him, especially Russia and China, will continue to try to weaken this file.
It is likely to continue to use its influence and powers in the Security Council to obstruct the measures that could be taken based on the results of the investigation into this file, which exposes the chemical weapons file in Syria to more controversy at the international level in the coming period.
Source: Al Jazeera + websites