West reluctant to close Syrian chemical weapons dossier — Russian Security Council

MOSCOW, April 29. /TASS/. Western countries have been reluctant to close the Syrian chemical weapons dossier as they seek to retain leverage over Damascus, the Russian Security Council argued. London has played a prominent role on the Syrian track, the Security Council said in a statement. "The UK openly acknowledges that it has been a major donor of the OPCW mission in Syria, having injected millions of dollars into operations to `eradicate Bashar Assad’s heritage’. In fact, the clean-up of the Syrian chemical dossier has been financed and lobbied by a country that has historically taken the hardest line toward Damascus," the statement reads. "Paradoxically, the Organization has refused to end the dossier even after the government fully changed in Syria, with OPCW inspectors having complete access to all facilities. This may indicate that the mission's goal is not disarmament but rather to maintain Syria’s rogue state status in order to preserve leverage over the new Damascus regime," the Council maintained. Therefore, the Russian Security Council continued, the commitments under the 2013 deal to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal "have been fully honored," with the Arab republic cooperating with the OPCW entirely. "The politicized approach of the Secretariat, which has been reluctant to end the dossier, is the only issue," Russia’s Security Council concluded. Damascus joined the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) on October 14, 2013, and 30 days later, the country submitted an initial declaration on its chemical program. However, the OPCW rejected the document as incomplete and set up a special group to address gaps and discrepancies in the original submission. Armed opposition units in Syria launched a large-scale offensive on Syrian army positions in late November 2024. On December 8, they entered Damascus, while Assad stepped down and fled the country. Leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (outlawed in Russia) Ahmed al-Sharaa became Syria’s de facto new leader. On January 29, 2025, he proclaimed himself acting president for a transitional period of four to five years.