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OPCW Director-General Meets with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs
The Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), H.E. Mr Fernando Arias, met today with the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran for Legal and International Affairs, H.E. Mr Mohsen Baharvand. The bilateral meeting was held in the margins of the Twenty-Fifth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, taking place in The Hague from 20 to 22 April.
The Director-General briefed the Deputy Foreign Minister on the OPCW’s progress in implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Organisation’s activities in addressing challenges to achieving a world free of chemical weapons, and shared perspectives with the Minister on ways of strengthening cooperation between Iran and OPCW.
Posted by Scott Lucas | Apr 20, 2021 |
White Helmets rescuers treat victims of the Assad regime’s sarin attack on Khan Sheikhoun in northwest Syria, April 4, 2017
Victims of chemical attacks by Syria’s Assad regime have filed a criminal complaint in Sweden.
Lawyers lodged the complaint with Swedish police on Monday, seeking an investigation into the role of Bashar al-Assad’s officials.
Activists behind the initiative said in a statement, “The groups call on Swedish judicial authorities to open an investigation into these attacks, so that Syrian officials responsible for these war crimes can be put on trial under the principle of universal jurisdiction.”
THE HAGUE, Netherlands
A group of 46 nations called Tuesday on member states of the global chemical weapons watchdog to diplomatically rebuke Syria for using toxic gas and nerve agents in the country’s decade-long civil war.
French Ambassador Luis Vassy proposed stripping Syria of its voting rights at the annual meeting of members of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
“We owe this to the Syrian people,” Vassy said.
The proposal, which has support from countries that include the United States, Britain, Canada and Australia, is expected to be put to a vote Wednesday morning.
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Vassy said Syria’s use of prohibited chemical weapons was “irrefutable,” and he urged OPCW member states to back his attempt to strip Damascus of its rights, saying “we cannot let indifference win.”
Alexey Navalny is Russia’s most prominent opposition figure, an anti-corruption investigator whose exposés have targeted President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.