Qatar supports OPCW’s fact-finding mission in Syria

QNA/The Hague

The State of Qatar has reaffirmed its full support to the fact-finding mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to continue its work in Syria, calling on all parties to fully co-operate with the mission, especially the Syrian regime.
This came in a speech delivered by Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the OPCW and ambassador to the Netherlands Khalid bin Fahad al-Khater during the extraordinary session of the OPCW Executive Council to consider the reports of the fact-finding mission on the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Al-Khater praised the OPCW’s efforts to dismantle Syria’s declared chemical weapons production and expressed Qatar’s support for the Organisation’s role in the investigations on the use of chemical weapons against civilians in Syria.
In spite of these efforts, doubts and concerns still do exist on the dismantling of the Syrian chemical weapons, especially the gaps and contradictions contained in the Syrian declarations as well as the continued use of chlorine gas as a weapon in Syria against innocent civilians, Qatar’s permanent representative said.
Ambassador al-Khater also said that the State of Qatar has been briefed on the latest reports, dated October 29, 2015, of the OPCW’s fact-finding mission, which stated that chemical weapons have been used continuously and systematically from March to May 2015 in the province of Idlib and in August in the town of Mare.
He expressed Qatar’s concern and its strong condemnation over the use of chemical weapons by any party and under any circumstances, saying it is reprehensible and contrary to the rules of international law.
Al-Khater reminded the audience of the results of previous reports of the fact-finding mission which was issued in the past year on the use of chlorine as a weapon in Syria in the villages of Talmenes, Al Tamanah and Kafr Zita from April to August 2014.
He said that Syria has been given an exceptional opportunity and the organisation and its member states exert all support for Syria to get rid of its chemical weapons in a specified period of time, but continued procrastination should not be transformed to the strategy of the imposition of a fait accompli.