The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas has welcomed the adoption of a new United Nations Security Council resolution for the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria.

Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell said yesterday that the Bahamas is a “States Party” to the Chemical Weapons Convention and subsequently supports the processes at the United Nations.

UN Security Council resolution 2118 calls for the destruction of all chemical weapons in Syria. It was unanimously passed on September 27.

Syria has been at the centre of international media reports in past months stemming from a civil war, first sparked by widespread protests in 2011. The UN has estimated more than 100,000 persons have died as a result of the conflict.

The Bahamas’ statement says the country not only welcomes this resolution, but also “the surge of renewed hope” in the international community to “deliver a united response” to the Syria conflict.

“Resolution 2118 and its endorsement of the relevant decision of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, of 27 September 2013, brings swiftly into fulfilment the initial commitments established in the Framework for the Elimination of Syrian Chemical Weapons and represents an important step toward the achievement of important and clearly defined goals, including the safest and most expedient destruction of the chemical weapons programme of the Syrian Arab Republic,” the statement says.

“The Bahamas joins the call for the necessary commitment to the full implementation of the provisions of the resolution.

“As a States Party to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Commonwealth of The Bahamas affirms its belief in these developments as positive and concrete steps toward the fulfilment of the letter and spirit of the Chemical Weapons Convention which envisages a world free of all chemical weapons.”

The statement added: “The Bahamas further reaffirms a continuing and overarching concern as regards the humanitarian situation in Syria which, along with the renewed hope of unified action, must give sustained impetus to the earliest achievement of a negotiated political settlement and an end to all forms of violence.”