WATCHDOG STRIPS SYRIA’S RIGHTS

The global chemical weapons watchdog voted yesterday to take the unprecedented step of stripping Syria of its rights at the organisation after a probe blamed Damascus for poison gas attacks.

Syria will have its own voting rights revoked at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and will be banned from holding any offices at the Netherlands-based agency. The measures are in response to an OPCW investigation last year that found the air force had used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine gas in three attacks on the village of Lataminah in 2017.