US Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in Geneva described Tuesday Syria’s taking over the CD as “a travesty.”
Robert Wood briefly walked out of the room in protest when the Syrian representative took the floor.
“Syria’s presence here is a travesty,” he told AFP just before the session began.
“This regime has committed countless crimes against its own people through the use of chemical weapons, and it is just unacceptable for them to be leading this body,” he insisted.
Syria neither has the moral authority nor the credibility to lead this body, Wood added.
Syria on Monday took over the rotating presidency of the CD, according to a decades-old practice among the body’s 65 members following the alphabetical order of country names in English.
During the first open CD session of Syria’s presidency on Tuesday, the US led a number of diplomats in protest.
Wood briefly left the room when Syria’s ambassador Hussam Edin Aala opened the session before returning to voice Washington’s displeasure from the floor.
“Today marks a sad and shameful day in the history of this body,” he told the assembly.
“Simply put, it is a travesty that the Syrian regime, which continues to indiscriminately slaughter its own people with weapons banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention, should presume to preside over this body,” he said.
Wood stressed that the US would not “permit ‘business as usual’ in the CD while Syria presides over this body.”
He said his country would be represented “in this hall to ensure that Syria is not able to advance initiatives that run counter to the interests of the United States.”
“But we will fundamentally alter the nature of our presence in the plenaries,” he said, before moving in protest to a seat usually reserved for assistants.
Wood’s words were echoed by a number of ambassadors from other countries, including Britain and Australia.
"This weakens the credibility of this body," Australian ambassador to the CD said.
The representative of Bulgaria, who also spoke on behalf of the European Union, Turkey and Norway, said that it was "very unfortunate that Syria would assume this presidency for even one month."
The French representative also said Syria “does not have the moral authority to lead this body”.
