Secretary-General of the Syrian Coalition Abdel Ilah Fahd stressed the need to hold the Assad regime accountable for the use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians.
Speaking at the 8th International Conference on the Protection against Toxic Substances being held in Singapore between Tuesday and Thursday, Fahd criticized the international community for remaining silent on the regime’s crimes and its ignoring of the suffering of the Syrian people.
An investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) showed that the Assad regime was responsible for chlorine attacks that killed scores of civilians in the rebel-held areas in 2014 and 2015.
On February 28, Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have imposed sanctions on the Assad regime over the use of chemical weapons against civilians.
At least 1,491 people have so far been killed in chemical attacks by the Assad regime since March 2011, Fahd said. He added that these attack affected around 15,000 people, mostly women and children.
Fahd pointed out that medical facilities in Syria lack the necessary medicines and equipment to treat victims of chemical attacks, especially in view of the systematic targeting of these facilities by the Assad regime and Russian forces.
Chemical attacks by the Assad regime mainly targeted the rebel-held areas while avoiding to hit the areas controlled by the UN- designated terrorist groups.
The EU has placed four high-ranking Assad army officers on a sanctions blacklist over chemical weapons attacks on civilians in Syria.
The decision brings to 239 the number of Assad regime individuals hit with travel bans or asset freezes over the violent suppression of civilians since the revolution started in 2011, according to a European Union statement issued on Monday.
The high-ranking regime officials Ahmad Balul, Sajji Darwish, Mohammed Ibrahim, and Badie Mualla will be banned entry to the EU countries and will not be able to access any assets within the EU countries or banks. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
