Damascus Rejects Report Confirming Use of Chemical Weapons
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said on Saturday that the report released by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which held Damascus responsible for the chemical attack in Douma in April 2018, lacks evidence expressing their rejection of the allegations.
According to the OPCW’s two-year investigation, the chemical attack on April 7, 2018, killed 43 and injured dozens of people.
The Syrian ministry explained in their statement released on Friday that those who prepared this report used “devious expressions” saying “There are reasonable grounds for reaching these conclusions,” indicating that the inspectors’ team had no firm conviction of the conclusions.
The Syria government denies the use of chemical weapons by its forces during the years of war and insists that it handed over its chemical weapons stockpile to OPCW in accordance with the terms of the 2013 agreement.
A report by the OPCW published on Friday confirmed the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government in the 2018 Douma attack in eastern Ghouta in Rif Dimasq Governorate.
“At least one helicopter dropped two yellow cylinders containing toxic chlorine gas on two apartment buildings in a civilian-inhabited area in Douma,” the report read.
On April 8, 2020, the Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) of the OPCW, for the first time, held the Syrian government forces responsibility for the chemical attacks on the town of Latmana in Hama Governorate in 2017.
The conclusion of the report is reached on the basis of “reasonable grounds”, which is the standard of proof consistently adopted by international fact-finding bodies and commissions of inquiry. The IIT conducted its investigation between January 2021 and December 2022.
The IIT was established by member states at the Hague-based OPCW in November 2018 to identify perpetrators of chemical attacks in Syria after Russia vetoed the joint UN-OPCW mission.