Syria promises to destroy any chemical weapons of Assad era

The Syrian Foreign Minister told the Global Caution in Chemical Weapons that the new government is seeking to destroy any other reserves produced by President Bashar al -Assad.

Speaking to the meeting of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, Asada al-Siban has promised to put an end to this painful heritage to attract justice to the victims and ensure that the preservation of international law is firm. “

But he added that Syria “needs support for the international community.”

Assad’s government denied using chemical weapons during a 14-year civil war, but activists accused him of holding dozens of chemical attacks.

In 2013, rockets containing a nervous agent Sarin were fired in several suburbs, which were preserved by rebels in the east and western guta, killed hundreds of people. UN experts confirmed the use of the nervous agent Sarin, but they are not asked to attribute any guilt.

Assad denied his forces fired rockets, but he agreed to sign the chemical weapons convention (CWC) and allow the joint OPCW-UN Mission to destroy the proclaimed Syria chemical arsenal. However, the issues of the accuracy and completeness of the Syria’s declaration remained.

The OPCW investigation and identification group recorded numerous chemical weapons during the war, determining the Syrian military as a criminal from five cases of chemical weapons in 2017 and 2018.

They included an attack in April 2018 on the Duma, in the east of Guta, when the Syrian Air Force helicopter is believed to have thrown two cylinders filled with high concentrated chlorine gas on two apartment buildings, bending at least 43 people.

A previous OPCW facts, which was not provided for the determination of criminals, also found that in 20 other cases chemical weapons were used or probably used.

Last month, OPCW CEO Fernando Arias visited Damascus to hold talks with Shiban and Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who headed the uprising in December.

At a meeting on Wednesday, Arias said that “developing a political landscape in Syria” gave the international community a new and historical opportunity to complete the Syria’s chemical weapons program. “

He said a team of technical experts from OPCW would be deployed to Damascus in the coming days and will start visiting the suspected chemical weapons sites.

Shiban also met with the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Karim Khan in Hague on Wednesday.

The ICC said their negotiations “continued in January’s visit to the prosecutor in Damascus, studying partnerships on accountable for crimes committed in Syria.”

Syria is not a member of the ICC, but Khan said the new government could take the jurisdiction of the court as the first step, as Ukraine has done to war with Russia.