ASTANA – Kazakhstan once again strongly condemns the act of the use of chemical weapons in Syria as confirmed by the findings of an independent investigation by the UN Mission and regards it as a crime against humanity, the country’s foreign ministry said in a Sept. 17 statement, as it called for a UN Security Council resolution to work towards the elimination of chemical weapons stockpiles in that country.
“We support the adoption of a UN Security Council resolution on Syria that would stipulate strict compliance to a concerted decision on the elimination of chemical weapons in this country and the conduct of regular inspections of this process,” the foreign ministry said in its third statement on Syria in recent weeks.
“We express our hopes that the accession of Syria to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction as well as placement of such weapons under international control will preclude the possibility of their repeated use and become an effective step towards the end of a longstanding and bloody conflict in Syria,” the foreign ministry added.
“Kazakhstan once again urges the international community and the UN Security Council to take systemic steps towards the advancement of the goal of ridding the planet of all types of weapons of mass destruction (WMD),” the statement further stressed evoking Kazakhstan’s long-standing active campaigning and practical steps towards the elimination of all forms of WMD.
It concluded by focusing on the need to seek peaceful resolution to Syria’s two-year long internal conflict: “We call for earliest convention of an international conference on the settlement of the conflict in Syria with the aim to end violence and determine Syria’s political future through dialogue and reconciliation.”
The statement was released just as Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov and other officials formally launched a bid by the country for a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council for 2017-18. In his Sept. 17 speech on the occasion to foreign diplomats and chief editors of national media in Astana, Idrissov recounted several of Kazakhstan’s initiatives to promote peace and security regionally and globally, including its nuclear disarmament story and efforts to strengthen security in Central Asia, as some of the country’s credentials for election to the world’s top body deciding issues of war and peace.
