Thank you, Mr President. And, we'd like to thank the High Representative, once again, for her briefing, and for reminding us so clearly of the facts.
We must keep these facts in mind, and not allow ourselves to be distracted by the blizzard of disinformation that surrounds Syria's chemical weapons programme. The OPCW Declaration Assessment Team has a mandate to ensure the Syrian Arab Republic fulfils its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, as well as under this Council's resolutions.
The team has been working since 2014 to resolve the many gaps, inconsistencies and discrepancies in Syria's initial chemical weapons declaration.
Since April this year, the team has made extensive efforts to deploy to Syria to continue its vital work and has also proposed meeting outside of Syria.
However the 25th round of consultations between the Secretariat and the Syrian Arab Republic has still not taken place.
As the High Representative said, responsibility for this rests with the Syrian side, which has failed to respond to letters and Note Verbales from the Secretariat, and has continued to refuse to issue a visa for the lead technical expert.
As we've heard today, the Syrian Arab Republic has also failed to comply with numerous other commitments, including with the Conference of States Parties' Decision of June 2018 that it should declare all chemical weapons it possesses - including sarin and its precursors - as well as the Executive Council Decision of July 2020 that it should declare facilities related to the chemical weapons used in the sarin and chlorine attacks in Ltamenah on 24, 25 and 30 March 2017.
These facts are not academic - they are deadly serious.
As we have heard many times, the 20 unresolved issues in Syria's initial declaration, include the whereabouts of several hundred tonnes of chemical weapons agents and thousands of munitions.
The OPCW's Investigation and Identification Team has found the Syrian Arab Republic responsible for chemical weapons attacks against its own people.
And in total, the OPCW's Fact Finding Mission has identified 20 incidents of chemical weapons use in Syria. And, there are well-documented reports of many more.
We must keep a spotlight on these issues, not just because of our responsibilities under Article 24 of the Charter, but also because we owe it to the victims of these horrific weapons to ensure that their use does not go unchallenged.
There must be no impunity for any state that develops, acquires, or deploys chemical weapons, anywhere, under any circumstances.
Thank you, Mr President.
