5 June 2025
Thank you, Madame President,
I would also like to thank the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Mrs. Nakamitsu, for her always interesting briefing.
To begin with, my country Greece fully adheres to the principles and goals of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction.
We condemn in the strongest possible terms any use of chemical weapons, by any State or nonState actors, anywhere, in any circumstances, and we stress the need to hold all those who would use such weapons accountable.
Madame President,
Historically tied with the Syrian people, Greece supports Syria’s efforts to achieve progress and prosperity and to be a factor of stability in the wider region.
As our Minister for Foreign Affairs stated just a few days ago, on 21st of May, while presiding the last meeting of the Council on the situation in Syria, Greece stands ready to contribute to the reconstruction of Syria and to ensure the preservation of its rich ethnic and religious diversity.
In this spirit, our Minister for Foreign Affairs visited Damascus, last February, and took part in international conferences on Syria, in Paris and in Brussels.
Madame President,
The political transition in Syria has opened a rare window of opportunity to settle the long overdue issue of chemical weapons in Syria.
I wish to highlight three areas of priorities for Greece.
Firstly, my country supports the work of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons towards establishing the facts surrounding any use of chemical weapons, including toxic chemicals, for hostile purposes by the Assad regime. We commend the fact that OPCW is carrying out its mandate impartially, professionally and in adherence to the highest international standards.
Secondly, we welcome the latest monthly report of the Director General of the OPCW on the progress in the elimination of the Syrian Chemical Weapons Programme.
Despite the worryingly slow progress, as attested in the report, some activities have been carried out by the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW.
Notably, we welcome the deployment of a team of the Secretariat to the Syrian Arab Republic from 14 to 25 April 2025. During this deployment, the team conducted meetings with the representatives of the Syrian de facto authorities, gathered new information that had not previously been disclosed to the Secretariat and, most importantly, visited seven locations, including two that had been declared by the Assad regime in its initial declaration in 2013.
We are looking forward to the publication of the outcomes of the analysis on the evidence collected during the aforementioned activities.
Thirdly, as stated at the latest monthly report of the Director General of the OPCW, the Syrian authorities have yet to fulfill any measures provided by decision EC-94/DEC.2 of the Council of OPCW, particularly declaring all of the chemical weapons they currently possess, including sarin, sarin precursors, and chlorine that is not intended for purposes not prohibited under the Convention, as well as chemical weapons production facilities and other related facilities.
Therefore, we call on the de facto authorities of Syria to engage constructively and in good faith, with OPCW’s Technical Secretariat, in order to close the 19 outstanding issues and thus to confirm that it has abandoned the use of chemical weapons and has concluded the total destruction of its stockpiles.
In the same spirit, we remind Damascus of its responsibility to prevent any non-state actors from gaining access to chemical weapons, which would have devastating effects for regional stability and security.
To conclude, Greece reiterates its previous call for the unity of the Council into upholding Resolution 2118 (2013) and the international norm against any use of chemical weapons.
At the same time, Greece reiterates its full support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, which must be fully respected by all, upholding relevant international agreements, and UNSC Resolutions.
I thank you
