OPCW Chief Sees World Without Chemical Weapons

By Chris Schneidmiller
Global Security Newswire

THE HAGUE — There are only 14 nations that do not yet belong to the Chemical Weapons Convention.  This dwindling list, however, includes a Stalinist regime and several Middle Eastern countries that give no appearance of being ready to join now, if ever.

Rogelio Pfirter’s job is to make sure they do.

The Argentinean diplomat leads the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the treaty’s monitoring body.  He described himself yesterday as an optimist who believes governments that believe in peace will ultimately do the right thing.

“I think that we need to persuade them that joining the convention at the earliest is the right way to go,” Pfirter said.  “Of course, different countries have different reasons for not being here.  In some cases it might be not lack of will but rather lack of ability to move forward.”

“In other cases I believe that the lack of progress is the result of more political or strategic or both types of reasons.  Those cases are more difficult.”

As of this week’s Conference of States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, 181 nations have pledged not to develop, stockpile or use toxic agents such as mustard gas, sarin or soman. 

Each new member reduces the threat that nations will again deploy those materials in warfare or that terrorists will gain access to those weapons.  All treaty members are obligated to declare and destroy any chemical stocks, and to take internal measures to prevent illicit use of dangerous chemicals.

The goal of the action planned approved by member nations in 2003 is to bring 195 nations — the number of countries the agency believes capable of signing a treaty — into the fold by April 29, 2007, the 10th anniversary of the treaty’s entry into force.  It calls for the agency and member nations to use various means to promote membership, including workshops and bilateral meetings, and to offer technical assistance to nations moving toward joining.

Twenty-four nations have signed the convention since the action plan was adopted.  Delegates yesterday agreed by consensus to maintain the effort for another year.

“While we have made significant progress towards universality, much efforts would be required to persuade those who have not so far favored joining the convention,” said Algerian delegate Said Moussi, facilitator on treaty universality for the OPCW Executive Council.

The countries that remain outside the treaty are Angola, the Republic of Congo, Guinea Bissau and Somalia in Africa; Myanmar and North Korea in Asia; Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon and Syria in the Middle East; and the Bahamas, Barbados and Dominican Republic in the Caribbean and Latin America.

A diplomatic source said the Bahamas, Barbados, Republic of Congo, Iraq and Lebanon are seen as likely to join the convention in 2007.

Some nations have extremely limited economies and international relations and see little reason to sign the pact, said John Gilbert, a senior science fellow at the Center for Nonproliferation and Arms Control.  They often face more pressing troubles.

The major challenges clearly lie in North Korea and the Middle East, where nations are not only reluctant to join but suspected of stockpiling chemical weapons.

North Korea is believed to be among the world’s major chemical weapons holders.  The secretive regime in Pyongyang is unlikely to open itself to the international scrutiny required under the treaty, Gilbert said.  “I think that North Korea is probably a lost cause unless and until there is severe regime change there,” he said.

In his opening address to the conference, Pfirter acknowledged North Korea’s “absolute indifference” to the treaty, but noted that the U.N. Security Council has called for it to halt all WMD programs.  He also said he would eventually like to see chemical weapons addressed at the six-party talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

There is perhaps cause for cautious optimism in the Middle East.  Egypt, Iraq, Israel and Lebanon all sent observers to the conference this week.  The Iraqi government has a mandate to join the treaty, while the Lebanese parliament is considering the matter, Pfirter said.

“The fact that some of those countries are even participating in our meeting … shows that this is again not a static issue,” he said.

Resolution to the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict is likely necessary to create meaningful movement in the region toward the treaty, Gilbert said.  If one of the countries in the region signed on, though, the others might follow suit.

Israel is unlikely to follow the lead of Iraq or Lebanon, as those countries’ internal troubles would undermine their capabilities to meet their treaty commitments, Gilbert said.  A move by Egypt or Syria which, like Israel, are suspected of operating chemical weapons programs, would be far more significant, he added.

Pfirter rejects the argument that peace in the Middle East must precede entry into the Chemical Weapons Convention.  Joining the treaty would instead be a building block of peace, he said.

“It is quite clear that any step that would free the people of the region of a set of one category of weapons of mass destruction would represent in itself an objective progress of progressive steps toward permanent, legitimate peace,” Pfirter said.

He said there is no reason to believe that chemical weapons would act as a deterrent against nuclear weapons, such as those that Israel is widely assumed to possess.

The OPCW Technical Secretariat will continue to communicate to nations that chemical weapons are “illegal, immoral, contrary to international law but they’re also from a strategic point of view of doubtful value,” he said. 

The challenges to Pfirter’s agency do not end with bringing countries into the convention.

Those that join and that possess chemical weapons are required to eliminate their stockpiles by no later than April 29, 2012.  No delegate at this week’s meeting allowed that obligation go unmentioned during opening statements.

The United States, though, is now not expected to finish disposal until 2023.  Experts say that efforts to eliminate weapons in Russia and China are also likely to continue past the deadline.

If preparations are being made at the agency for eventual deadline violations, they are not yet ready to be noted in public.

“As director general of this organization I have to say there is no possibility of possessor states to go beyond 2012,” Pfirter said.  “It is what the convention is telling us.  It is the clear obligation of possessor states.  So we look for them to do everything necessary to fulfill their obligations on time.”

Pfirter said he believes the state holders of chemical weapons are adequately securing them from falling into the possession of terrorists.  A greater danger comes from potential access to chemicals being used in thousands of industrial and commercial sites around the world, he said.

The conference today approved an OPCW budget that includes funding in 2007 for inspections of 200 industrial sites, 20 more than authorized for this year.

There is no doubt in Pfirter’s mind that all this work there is a world coming one day without chemical weapons.

“I think there is.  There has to be.  Some might think that it is a naive approach, but I’m quite sure that it is an approach that we need to have in order to continue pressing for such a goal.  It is an obligation.”

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