Published : 22-04-2021
The Free Palestinian Syrian Assembly (Maseer) has strongly condemned the Palestinian Authority’s position regarding sanctions on Syria at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Voting on Syria at the world's chemical-weapons watchdog has shed light on its friends and the geopolitics of its 10-year old conflict.
Palestine was among the countries who voted 'no' to sanctions on Syria at the OPCW in the Hague on Wednesday (20 April).
Maseer said the vote made by Palestinian Authority is a revelation of the latter’s involvement in attempt to cover up crimes committed by the Syrian regime against civilians using internationally-prohibited weapons.
The committee referred to the findings of reports conducted by international fact-finding committees, including OPCW’s Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) is responsible for identifying the perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic.
Syria used chlorine gas against civilians in 2018 and chlorine and sarin gas in 2017, the OPCW has previously found.
The Syrian regime also massacred several hundred civilians using sarin gas in Ghouta, in the suburbs of Damascus, in 2013, before the OPCW began to investigate its crimes.
During the vote, Russia, which is fighting on the Syrian regime's side in its civil war, also led a Cold-War type bloc of no-voters, which included Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, diplomatic sources told EUobserver.
China lent its weight to the no-side, in the name of non-intervention in other states' affairs.
Iran and Pakistan also joined the 'no' camp. Nicaragua, Bolivia, Myanmar, and Zimbabwe said Syria should keep its full voting rights at the OPCW, despite massacring its own people with chemical weapons for years.
But all the EU countries represented in Wednesday's meeting voted in concord and the motion - to strip Syria of those rights - sailed through by 87 against 15, with 34 abstentions.
It was the first move of its type in the OPCW's 24-year history.
The Free Palestinian Syrian Assembly (Maseer) has strongly condemned the Palestinian Authority’s position regarding sanctions on Syria at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
Voting on Syria at the world's chemical-weapons watchdog has shed light on its friends and the geopolitics of its 10-year old conflict.
Palestine was among the countries who voted 'no' to sanctions on Syria at the OPCW in the Hague on Wednesday (20 April).
Maseer said the vote made by Palestinian Authority is a revelation of the latter’s involvement in attempt to cover up crimes committed by the Syrian regime against civilians using internationally-prohibited weapons.
The committee referred to the findings of reports conducted by international fact-finding committees, including OPCW’s Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) is responsible for identifying the perpetrators of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic.
Syria used chlorine gas against civilians in 2018 and chlorine and sarin gas in 2017, the OPCW has previously found.
The Syrian regime also massacred several hundred civilians using sarin gas in Ghouta, in the suburbs of Damascus, in 2013, before the OPCW began to investigate its crimes.
During the vote, Russia, which is fighting on the Syrian regime's side in its civil war, also led a Cold-War type bloc of no-voters, which included Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, diplomatic sources told EUobserver.
China lent its weight to the no-side, in the name of non-intervention in other states' affairs.
Iran and Pakistan also joined the 'no' camp. Nicaragua, Bolivia, Myanmar, and Zimbabwe said Syria should keep its full voting rights at the OPCW, despite massacring its own people with chemical weapons for years.
But all the EU countries represented in Wednesday's meeting voted in concord and the motion - to strip Syria of those rights - sailed through by 87 against 15, with 34 abstentions.
It was the first move of its type in the OPCW's 24-year history.
