Toxic Weapons brings Halvorsen to The Hague

Gas mask

The Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has gathered world leaders to The Hague to promote consideration of proposals designed to bolster the watchdog groups abilities to assess, and then assign responsibility to states using banned poison weapons.

 

State Secretary Audun Halvorsen (H) of Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in The Hague and gave a press release, saying; “Norway will affirm proposals that allow OPCW to better facilitate delivery of aid & relief to Member States suffering unlawful chemical attacks.’ –

RESPONSIBLE PARTIES
“Norway shall affirm proposals designed to reveal the use of prohibited toxic chemical weapons, and Norway will further affirm all proposals tasked with bringing those responsible for illegal chemical attacks to accountability.”

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons oversees a 1997 member-nation treaty that bans the use of poison weapons.

US – EU SUPPORT
Yesterday, June 26th, Britain’s Foreign Minister Boris Johnson called upon the nations to vote in favor of strengthening the watchdog group, saying that the OPCW needs the capability to assign accountability to those responsible for banned, toxic poison attacks.

Both the United States and the European Union said that they would support the drafted proposal put forward by the British, while Russia and several of her allies opposed it.

Speaking before the assembled nations, Minister Johnson stated; “At present the OPCW’s experts can say where & when an attack happened, but not who was responsible. If we’re serious about upholding bans on chemical weapons, that gap must be filled.”

A vote upon the resolution will be tallied today, June 27, with the UK proposal requiring a two-thirds majority vote to receive OPCW’s full confirmation.

RUSSIA OBJECTS
Russian representative Georgy Kalamanov said that the British proposal was “a clear attempt to manipulate the mandate of the OPCW and to undermine the legal basis on which it stands, with which we fully disagree.”

“We should reflect seriously on this proposal, and not allow it to undermine the fate of the OPCW,” said Russia’s Kalamanov.

OPCW is a technical & scientific group tasked with researching the type and the extent of illegal toxic weapons used within an unlawful attack, but the group is not currently mandated with the ability to formally declare what group or state perpetrated said attacks.

TOXIC ATTACKS
Norway and other countries have called for this OPCW meeting at The Hague to strengthen the global efforts against illegal chemical weapon use, and this meeting comes during the receipt of many disturbing reports of toxic chemical weapon deployment within Syria, Iraq, Malaysia and the U.K.

The Hague’s meeting of OPCW concludes June 28th.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today