Vice President of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), Abdul Majeed Barakat, emphasized that the Assad regime used chemical weapons 184 times against the Syrian people after ratifying the Chemical Weapons Convention in September 2013. He stated that the regime failed to honor its commitments and violated UN Security Council Resolution 2118.
In a press statement, Barakat highlighted that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed in its reports that the regime employed chemical weapons on several occasions following the issuance of Resolution 2118. He called for action in accordance with the resolution, including the implementation of Chapter VII and referring the matter to the International Criminal Court.
Adedeji Ebo, Director and Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, presented a briefing on Thursday to the UN Security Council on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2118 (2013), which addresses the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons program. He underscored the results of OPCW analyses, conducted between September 2020 and April 2023, on samples collected from two previously declared chemical weapons-related sites in Syria.
The results, he noted, indicated potentially undeclared activities involving several chemical warfare agents, including the full production cycle, from research and development to production, testing, and storage of two specific agents. Ebo described the findings as “an extremely worrying development.”
“Although the Syrian Arab Republic provided some additional information regarding these results, the OPCW Technical Secretariat assessed this information as insufficient. This led to the opening of two new outstanding issues in July 2024, raising the total number of unresolved issues from 24 to 26, of which seven have been resolved, leaving 19 unresolved,” Ebo added.
Ebo also informed the Security Council of the ongoing challenges in scheduling the next round of consultations between the Syrian regime and the OPCW. He emphasized that the assessment team would not be able to conduct field visits during its mid-September deployment, as negotiations on the relevant dates were still ongoing.
Meanwhile, the Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs at the US Mission to the United Nations, Ambassador Robert Wood, stated in a speech before the UN Security Council on Thursday that the Assad regime has shown utter contempt for the will of this Council and for the families of the men, women, and children who suffered and died due to chemical attacks.
He added, “This month marks 11 years since the adoption of Resolution 2118, which this Council unanimously adopted in response to the horrific chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Today, the United States wishes to review where we stand on the critical pillars of that resolution.
“Colleagues, that resolution required the full implementation of the OPCW Executive Council’s decision, necessitating the expeditious destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons program under stringent verification.”
Wood continued: “The United States remains committed to working with partners around the world to bring an end to the regime’s chemical weapons program and promote accountability for the use of chemical weapons in Syria and elsewhere.
“After 11 years, the Syrian regime is banking on us forgetting their atrocities. The United States refuses to do so. We will not forget; we will not relent, and we implore every nation seated at this table to do the same.”
In his speech to the UN Security Council on Thursday, France’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Nicolas de Rivière, indicated that there are ongoing concerns regarding undeclared chemical weapons activities in Syria. He called on the Assad regime to comply with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
De Rivière stressed that serious concerns persist, as the regime has yet to explain the presence of chemical agents found in samples taken from two sites in September 2020 and April 2023. This presence suggests undeclared chemical weapons production activities, adding to the long list of unresolved questions surrounding the regime’s declarations.
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
