Syria condemns OPCW report on 2018 attack
DAMASCUS: Syria on Thursday dismissed the global chemical weapons watchdog’s statement, which said that investigators had found “reasonable grounds to believe” the Syrian air force dropped two cylinders of chlorine gas in 2018 on then-rebelheld town of Douma.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) produced a detailed report following a fact-finding mission that investigated the April 7, 2018 atack. Medical workers and activists said at the time more than 40 people were killed in the atack. OPCW inspectors headed to the site of the atack days later.
The US, Britain and France blamed Syrian government forces and launched airstrikes. Syria and key ally Russia deny any chemical atack.
Douma was the final target of the Syrian government’s sweeping campaign to reclaim control of the eastern Ghouta suburbs of the capital, Damascus, from the rebels, who gave up the town days ater the alleged chemical atack.
Syria’s permanent representative to OPCW, Ambassador Milad Atieh, told reporters that the Opcwhasbeenbiasedtowards“westernpositions.” “The OPCW’S report relied mostly on information obtained from countries hostile to Syria and some other media and social networking sites run by terrorist organisations,” he said.
“The report contained false accusations aimed at increasing pressure and escalating Western positions hostile to Syria.” Atieh claimed the report’s methodology had “serious irregularities and defects” and false accusations that impacted its credibility, though he did not give any examples or offer evidence to support his statement.
In an atempt to ensure accountability for crimes in Syria, the United Nations has established a commission entitled “International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism.” It is mandated to preserve and analyse evidence of crimes and prepare files for trials in “national, regional or international courts or tribunals that have or may in the future have jurisdiction over these crimes, in accordance with international law.” Atieh however accused the US and Western countries of political interference with the UN commission.
The OPCW’S director general, Fernando Arias, briefed the organisation’s member states on the report at a meeting on Thursday.
“The report and its facts are now in your hands, and it will be up to member states of the organisation, and to the international community as a whole to take any further action,” he told them, according to a tweet by the organisation. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in a joint statement with his British, French, and German counterparts last week commended the OPCW report and called on key Syrian ally Russia to “stop shielding Syria from accountability for its use of chemical weapons.”
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