MOSCOW, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Russia opposes London's initiative to convene a special session of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for fear of "destruction of the global regime of chemical disarmament," the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
"There is every reason to believe that the initiative of London and its allies is aimed at further politicizing the work of the OPCW, which until recently was one of the most effective international structures in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," a ministry statement said.
The Russian ministry said that the initiators of the special session plan to use it to further fan anti-Syrian and anti-Russian sentiment.
For this purpose, they intend to stir up the alleged use of toxic chemicals by government forces in Syria and the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain, it said.
On Tuesday Britain, supported by 11 other states, formally asked the OPCW to convene a conference of member states of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
"We call on all right-thinking states to come together next month to take action to reaffirm and defend the ban on chemical weapons, and to strengthen the organization which we have entrusted with overseeing it," the British Foreign Office said in a statement.
Russia has repeatedly stated that it is inadmissible to use chemical weapons anywhere and under any circumstances, the Russian Foreign Ministry statement said.
"At the same time, we proceed from the fact that the OPCW plan for regular activities for 2018 fully covers the current needs of the organization in discussing practical issues of the implementation of the CWC by the participating states," it said.
As the implementing body for the CWC, the OPCW oversees the global endeavor to permanently and verifiably eliminate chemical weapons. Since the convention's entry into force in 1997 -- and with its 192 States Parties -- it is the most successful disarmament treaty eliminating an entire class of weapons of mass destruction.
