Damascus Urges OPCW to Prevent Data Leaks on Chemical Weapons

Damascus calls on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to prevent further leaks of confidential information related to chemical weapons, Syria’s Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister Fayssal Mikdad said Monday.

BRUSSELS (Sputnik) – Mikdad added that the breaches continue to occur and expressed his hope "for more cooperation with states-parties in order to find efficient ways to avoid these breaches in the future."

"Mr. Chairman, we renew our concern against the breaches of confidentiality in the organization, while we welcome the reports, produced by the technical secretariat last March, concerning the previous breaches of confidentiality," Mikdad said at the 21st Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention in the Hague, Netherlands.

Western media recently published information, allegedly received from the OPCW's confidential documents. For instance, the Foreign Policy magazine, citing the OPCW’s documents, said that the Syrian government could have failed to eliminate all the chemical arsenals.

On October 27, the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) expert panel released its latest report claiming that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons at least three times in the country throughout 2014-2015. An earlier report said Daesh terrorist group was also responsible for several attacks.

Despite lack of conclusive evidence, a number of governments, including France, the United Kingdom and the United States, were quick to blame the Syrian government for the incident.

Damascus reacted by claiming the report failed to provide conclusive evidence of its culpability. The Russian Foreign Ministry also expressed regret over the finding, saying it could heighten anti-Syrian sentiment within the UN Security Council and the OPCW.