Syria rules out ties with Israel in acceding to chemical weapons treaty
UN document mentions that accession to the convention ‘does not imply’ recognition of Israel
Taking care to rule out any recognition of Israel, Syria formally acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention Saturday, and its commitments will go into effect in a month, according to a UN document released Saturday.
The document states that Syria “shall comply with the stipulations contained [in the Convention] and observe them faithfully and sincerely, applying the Convention provisionally pending its entry into force for the Syrian Arab Republic.”
The document also makes sure to affirm that “the accession of the Syrian Arab Republic to the Convention shall not in any sense imply recognition of Israel, and shall not entail entering into any relations with Israel in the matters governed by the provisions thereof.”
Syria has maintained that “the chemical weapons in Syria are a mere deterrence against the Israeli nuclear arsenal,” Syria’s ambassador to the UN, Bashar Ja’afari said Thursday.
In a Russian-American-brokered deal on Saturday, Syria will have to disclose a full inventory of its chemical weapons stockpile within a week.
The deal also calls for all components of the chemical weapons program to be removed from the country or destroyed by mid-2014.
US President Barack Obama welcomed the deal but warned that should diplomacy fail, the US “remains prepared to act.”
The Times of Israel Community.