A “chemical warfare agent” was detected in samples collected in Syria in September 2020, Izumi Nakamitsu, the United Nations disarmament chief, told the Security Council on Thursday. The production of this agent, which Nakamitsu did not identify, has not been declared by the Syrian regime.
“The presence of this chemical inside storage containers of large volume at a previously declared chemical weapons facility may imply undeclared production activities,” she added.
The OPCW will raise the issue in the next round of talks with Damascus in mid-May, part of a list of outstanding issues Nakamitsu described as “concerning.” She called on Syria to cooperate with OPCW teams.
The OPCW has accused the regime of Bashar al-Assad of using chemical weapons, including sarin gas and chlorine, several times in the country’s decade-long conflict. In April, the chemical weapon watchdog said it had “reasonable grounds to believe” that the Syrian air force dropped a cylinder of chlorine gas on Saraqib, southwest of Aleppo on February 4, 2018.
The United States believes the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons at least 50 times in the past 10 years and that Damascus “retains sufficient chemicals to use sarin, to produce and deploy chlorine munitions, and to develop new chemical weapons,” Richard Mill, US ambassador to the UN, told the Security Council.
Despite OPCW efforts to help Syria adhere to its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, “the Assad regime continues to ignore calls from the international community to fully disclose and verifiably destroy its chemical weapons program,” he added.
Russia’s deputy ambassador attacked the OPCW and its decision last month to suspend Syria’s rights and privileges at the watchdog. “Now it has become even clearer what the Western sponsors of this decision are up to. No, they do not want to ensure that no one ever use chemical weapons on the Syrian soil. Their real goal is to provoke Damascus to make rash steps and thus solve their own political tasks,” said Dmitry Polyanskiy, calling the allegations against Syria “outrageous.”
Russia is a close ally of the Assad regime.
