ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria has begun destroying chemical materials on its territory under international verification, the first such process since the fall of longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in late 2024, Damascus's envoy to the United Nations said, framing the effort as part of his country's political transition and its commitments to global security.
"The operation is the first destruction process since Syria's liberation from the former regime, and the first of its kind on Syrian territory in over a decade," Ibrahim Olabi, Syria's permanent representative to the UN, told the Security Council late Thursday.
Lauding the development as a "historic moment,” Olabi noted that “every [chemical] site that is secured, every piece of ammunition that is identified, does not merely remove a danger to Syria but to the entire world.
"What we are doing on the ground safeguards international law and institutions and protects the world from a security perspective," the Syrian envoy said, noting that his country "is undertaking these efforts as a victim of the chemical weapons file, not as a perpetrator."
Importantly, Olabi confirmed that the destruction efforts have been verified by both the new Damascus leadership and the global chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which operates in formal coordination with the UN.
The announcement highlights a fundamental operational and political shift in Damascus following the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in December 2024, transitioning the state from years of diplomatic deadlock to active cooperation with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
During the same Thursday session, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu corroborated Olabi’s remarks, noting that an OPCW team deployed to Syria in August verified "the irreversible destruction of 42 aerial bombs.”
Nakamitsu explained that the new authorities had granted unhindered access to previously undisclosed locations in May and formally declared additional production facilities, storage sites, empty chemical munitions, and an undeclared nerve-agent precursor chemical in June.
“This significant development means that, for the first time since 2014, the OPCW has verified the destruction of chemical munitions" on Syrian soil, she said, attributing the progress to close collaboration between the new administration and the Organization.
Moreover, Olabi on Thursday noted that the Syrian leadership is "preparing to hold the first court hearing for the use of such weapons to ensure that there will be no impunity," following the arrest of 18 former military and technical officials linked to the former regime's chemical weapons program.
"Syria's position on accountability is not open to compromise or interpretation,” he emphasized.
