Syria begins destroying remnants of al-Assad’s chemical weapons programme

Syria has begun destroying the remnants of a clandestine chemical weapons programme created under former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Syrian and United Nations officials have said.

This includes raw materials and munitions similar to those used in deadly gas attacks during the country’s civil war, diplomats said at the United Nations Security Council on Thursday.

UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu told a UN Security Council briefing that for the first time since 2014, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had verified the destruction of chemical munitions in Syria.

Syria’s new leadership had located remnants of al-Assad’s chemical weapons programme in May. Following the finding, Syria had found “one additional chemical weapons production facility, a newly discovered chemical used in the production of nerve agents, and empty chemical munitions”, Nakamitsu said.

“It also declared two chemical weapons storage facilities where the newly discovered facilities were being stored,” she added.

Last month, the OPCW deployed a team to Syria to verify the destruction of “category-three” chemical weapons, defined as unfilled munitions and other equipment used to release chemical weapons. Nakamitsu said the team verified “the irreversible destruction of 42 aerial bombs” as part of that mission.

“This is the very first destruction process since we have been liberated from the previous regime,” Syria’s UN envoy Ibrahim Olabi also told the briefing. “It’s also the first of its kind to destroy chemical materials on Syrian territory for over a decade.”

Olabi told the council that Syria was “protecting the world and the region through such work”. However, he added that repeated Israeli attacks had impeded some search-and-destruction operations and exposed the Syrian teams at work to risk.

“We cannot safeguard the security of the region if our security is exposed to attacks at the hands of Israel, and they are flouting the security of the region at large and they are breaching the conventions and treaties we have talked about,” he added.

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.

Olabi said Syria was preparing to hold the first court hearing of people suspected of involvement in the chemical weapons programme.