FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
Lavrov Lauds Trump’s Convening UN Security Council on WMD Proliferation as ‘Timely’
Sept. 27, 2018 (EIRNS)—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov praised President Donald Trump’s initiative to hold a session of the UN Security Council devoted to the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and proceeded to put on the table some very important WMD issues, reported TASS.
“We expect that a step in this direction (to tighten control over weapons) will mark today’s session of the UN Security Council. In this regard, we find President Trump’s initiative on convening this session very timely,”
Lavrov said during the Security Council session. The U.S. holds the presidency of the UNSC for September.
Lavrov also said, of reports that weapons of mass destruction had been handed to terrorists in Syria:
“Facts of these handovers exist and they should be carefully investigated. ... I think everybody agrees that the UN Security Council resolutions that outline specific measures against violations of non-proliferation must be strictly observed.”
He went on:
“Basic Resolution 1540 remains the cornerstone, since it contains the member states’ commitments to take practical steps in order not to allow weapons of mass destruction to go into the hands of non-state actors.”
Lavrov also brought up the Skripal case urging the British authorities to cooperate with Russia in the investigation. “We call on London once again to establish a fruitful dialogue for establishing truth,” he said.
The diplomat also brought up the question of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), charging that Western nations’ attempts to impose on it the function of establishing the guilty parties, degrades the responsibilities of the UN Security Council, which has that authority via the Chemical Weapons Convention. “The situation in the OPCW is degrading, as our Western counterparts are seeking to impose the so-called attributing functions on its technical secretariat,” he said. “In doing this they violate grossly the Chemical Weapons Convention and meddle with the prerogatives of the UN Security Council.”
