Syria which chemical weapon

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Most Read. March 21, Report. February 16, Impact. September 24, Report. May 1, Report. Protecting Rights, Saving Lives Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people in 90 countries worldwide, spotlighting abuses and bringing perpetrators to justice. An error occurred while subscribing your email address. Please try again. He called on the United States to stop politicizing OPCW by using it to punish States that have fallen out of favour, noting that skepticism about Western motives is only growing.

The representative of Syria raised several concerns about recent OPCW reports and a dangerous development in its course of work at the end April, when the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention adopted a hostile decision against his country as a result of pressure and blackmail by the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Such action constitutes a precedent in OPCW history by suspending the rights of a Member State that joined voluntarily and cooperated with its Technical Secretariat. Embodying a flawed report full of misleading and fabricated conclusions of the Investigation and Identification Team related to the alleged incidents in Al-Lataminah in , the illegal decision was voted on by only 45 per cent of State parties.

Thanking countries who chose to take the right stance and not vote in favour of it, he said this politicized Western decision falls within the framework of an aggressive scheme against Syria. Syria has never used chemical weapons and renews its condemnation of their use by anyone, at any time and place, and under any circumstances. Thanking China and the Russian Federation for their initiative to organize an informal Security Council meeting on protecting developing countries from political pressure and upholding the integrity of the non-proliferation regime, he reiterated a request for OPCW to pay due attention to growing concerns.

They include fact-finding mission reports related to the alleged use incidents in Syria, foremost of which relates to the Douma incident, he said, requesting OPCW to take the necessary immediate measures to correct the grave defects in them, as its disregard for the fundamental observations and legitimate inquiries of important personalities, specialized experts and prominent academics is unacceptable.

The Western countries that claim today to be keen on strengthening the non-proliferation regime are the ones that invented weapons of mass destruction of all kinds, used them in the First and Second World Wars and continue to develop them. The representative of Iran said exploitation of the Convention and politicization of OPCW have led to a credibility crisis for OPCW and challenged the consensual decision-making tradition in disarmament and non-proliferation forums.

The politically motivated decision by the Conference of States Parties stems from years of attempts by Western countries to advance their national interests, including by creating the Investigation and Identification Team through a flawed procedure and compelling the fact-finding mission to use unreliable open sources.

The intentional disregard of such cooperation is a clear regression from the norms of impartiality and professionalism. Noting that Iran voted against that decision, he condemned chemical weapons use in the strongest possible terms by anyone, anywhere and under any circumstance, and called for full and non-discriminatory implementation of the Convention.

The regime failed to declare that a chemical warfare agent was produced or weaponized at this site, he said, noting that sample analysis by the Declaration Assessment Team in revealed the existence of a chemical warfare agent previously undeclared. This hints at further undeclared production activities in Syria, he said, calling it unacceptable that the regime has not made a complete and accurate declaration of its programme, in violation of the Convention.

The Security Council must act in unison to push Syria to declare the full extent of its programme. Its denial of its obligations calls for further measures. Chemical weapons use by the Assad regime against its own people is well-documented, most recently by the Identification and Investigation Team, which found that on 4 February , chlorine was used to attack civilians in Saraqib.

It has been proven that the regime is responsible for eight attacks. He condemned its use of chemical weapons and lack of cooperation with the Identification and Investigation Team, including through visa denial and a refusal to grant entry to its chemical weapons programme, proving it continues to hide the truth.

Syria presents a litmus test for international efforts to ensure the Convention is upheld. Skip to main content. Welcome to the United Nations. United Nations. Security Council. For information media. Not an official record. A new report released Monday by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons OPCW said that there are "reasonable grounds to believe" a Syrian air force helicopter dropped a chlorine cylinder on the northwestern city of Saraqib in February The regime of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad has consistently denied using chemical weapons during its bloody decade-long conflict with rebel forces.

It stated that although no one was killed by the bomb, a dozen people were treated for symptoms of chemical poisoning after the "cylinder ruptured and released chlorine over a large area. Symptoms included nausea, eye irritation, shortness of breath, coughing and wheezing, the report said. It said a helicopter belonging to the Syrian air force's elite "Tiger Forces" had been "flying above the bombed area at the moment of the gas release".

The report added that samples collected from the scene were analyzed for chlorine contamination. Witness statements from victims and medical staff were also collected. The Syrian government frequently claim any chemical attacks have been staged by rebel forces to place blame on the Syrian army. The OPCW investigation said there is no evidence indicating the chlorine attack was carried out by Assad's adversaries.