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First verified destruction since 2014
Syria began destroying remnants of a clandestine chemical weapons programme created under former President Bashar al-Assad, with Syrian and United Nations officials describing it as the first verified destruction of such material in the country in more than a decade.
“OPCW had verified the destruction of chemical munitions in Syria”
At a UN Security Council briefing on Thursday, UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had verified the destruction of chemical munitions in Syria for the first time since 2014.
Nakamitsu said the OPCW team verified “the irreversible destruction of 42 aerial bombs” as part of its mission, after Syria’s new leadership located remnants of the programme in May.
Syria’s UN envoy Ibrahim Olabi told the council, “This is the very first destruction process since we have been liberated from the previous regime,” and said it was also “the first of its kind to destroy chemical materials on Syrian territory for over a decade.”
More materials found, more sites
Nakamitsu told the Security Council that after the May finding, Syria identified “one additional chemical weapons production facility, a newly discovered chemical used in the production of nerve agents, and empty chemical munitions,” and declared two chemical weapons storage facilities where the newly discovered facilities were being stored.
She said the OPCW deployed a team to Syria last month to verify the destruction of “category-three” chemical weapons, defined as unfilled munitions and other equipment used to release chemical weapons.
Syria’s Permanent Representative Ibrahim Olabi described the work as protecting the world and the region through such destruction, while also warning that repeated Israeli attacks had impeded some search-and-destruction operations and exposed the Syrian teams at work to risk.
Olabi said, “We cannot safeguard the security of the region if our security is exposed to attacks at the hands of Israel,” and added that Israel was “flouting the security of the region” and “breaching the conventions and treaties we have talked about.”
Accountability, court hearing, and scrutiny
Syrian authorities earlier this year took 18 suspects into custody for alleged involvement in al-Assad’s chemical weapons programme, including high-level military, political and technical officials, and Olabi said Syria was preparing to hold the first court hearing of people suspected of involvement.
“took 18 suspects into custody”
Nakamitsu said the OPCW verified the destruction process as part of a broader effort that began after Syria’s new leadership located remnants in May, and she described the destruction of category-three chemical weapons as “the irreversible destruction of 42 aerial bombs.”
In a separate UN Security Council briefing, Syria’s Permanent Representative Ibrahim Olabi called the start “a historic milestone” and said it was “the first such destruction effort since the fall of the former regime.”
US Deputy Ambassador to the UN Tammy Bruce welcomed Syria’s progress in dismantling remnants of the former regime’s chemical weapons program and said OPCW inspectors were in Syria to verify the destruction of Category 3 chemical weapons, including empty M4000 aerial bombs and Volcano rockets linked to past attacks in Khan Sheikhoun and Ghouta.