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| UK calls for global chemical weapons conference following Salisbury nerve agent attack | UK calls for global chemical weapons conference following Salisbury nerve agent attack |
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| Britain is calling for a global conference on chemical weapons in wake of attacks in Syria, Iraq and Salisbury. | |
| The proposed meeting of the signatories of the Chemical Weapons Convention has received the backing of 10 other states. It needs the support of 64 of the 192 signatories to trigger a conference within 30 days. | |
| Announcing the move, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the special conference would aim to “reaffirm and defend” the ban on use of the outlawed armaments and strengthen the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. | |
| Britain’s letter calling for a special conference comes just under three months after Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, in an attack in Salisbury which Britain has blamed on Russia. | Britain’s letter calling for a special conference comes just under three months after Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned with the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, in an attack in Salisbury which Britain has blamed on Russia. |
| Co-sponsors of the letter want the conference to look at ways in which the international community can work together to strengthen and protect the convention in its role as a cornerstone of the international system of non-proliferation. | Co-sponsors of the letter want the conference to look at ways in which the international community can work together to strengthen and protect the convention in its role as a cornerstone of the international system of non-proliferation. |
| “The world came together in 1997 to outlaw the development, stockpiling and use of these vile substances through the Chemical Weapons Convention,” said Mr Johnson. | “The world came together in 1997 to outlaw the development, stockpiling and use of these vile substances through the Chemical Weapons Convention,” said Mr Johnson. |
| “But in recent years we have seen chemical attacks by the Assad regime in Syria, by Daesh in Syria and Iraq, in Malaysia and even here in the UK in Salisbury. | “But in recent years we have seen chemical attacks by the Assad regime in Syria, by Daesh in Syria and Iraq, in Malaysia and even here in the UK in Salisbury. |
| “Today we have brought together 11 states to formally ask the director general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to convene a special Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical WeaponsConvention. | “Today we have brought together 11 states to formally ask the director general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to convene a special Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical WeaponsConvention. |
| “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 Organisation which we have entrusted with overseeing it.” | “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 Organisation which we have entrusted with overseeing it.” |