"Syria's presidency of the Conference on Disarmament is a travesty. This is a regime responsible for killing countless of its own citizens, many of whom have been impacted by chemical weapons attacks," said the US Ambassador Robert Wood.
Syria is heading the 65-member conference from May 28-June 26. The non-UN conference meets three times annually in Geneva with a rotating presidency.
"This is no normal presidency, and thus the US will not treat it as such..." added Gordon. This is a real sad day in the history of the Conference on Disarmament."
The United Kingdom also claimed that Syria has not abided by the non-proliferation pact.
"The UK deplores the fact that Syria will assume the presidency of the Conference on Disarmament, given the regime's consistent and flagrant disregard of international non-proliferation and disarmament norms and agreements," read a statement by British diplomats.
Syria's Ambassador Houssam-Eddin Ala, President of the Conference on Disarmament, delivers his statement in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday, May 29, 2018. Photo: AP
Syria's Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Hussam Eddin Ala told his country's state-run SANA news agency that the current agenda will include the issues of cessation of the arms race, nuclear disarmament, prevention of nuclear war, an arms race in the outer space and the new types of weapons of mass destruction.
Ala pointed out that five nuclear-weapon states are members of the conference (Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and North Korea).
He claimed US and Israeli media campaigns recently have worked to cast aspersions on Syria's new role.
The conference was formed in 1984. It was preceded by the Committee on Disarmament in 1979. It is not a UN body, but has many links.
Its work has mostly stalled over the past decade, leading to negotiations like the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to take place at the United Nations.
Syria has been in civil war since 2011. More than 350,000 of its people have died. The Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad has been accused of numerous chemical weapons attacks, which they deny.
