The OPCW has given Syria 90 days to address the situation with chemical weapons
The OPCW Executive Council by a vote decided on the issue of chemical weapons in Syria: the SAR is given 90 days to resolve related issues, said the press service of the organization.
"The Council expresses its deepest sympathy to the victims of use of chemical weapons and condemned the use of chemical weapons reported by the unit for the investigation and identification (GRI), which came to the conclusion, there is good reason to believe that Syria in March 2017 used chemical weapons in al-Latamne", - stated in the message of the organization.
It is noted that "the decision expresses deep concern of the Council in connection with the fact that the ATS use of chemical weapons is due to the fact that ATS are unable to declare and destroy all its chemical weapons and factories for the production of chemical weapons".
"In order to remedy the situation in accordance with paragraph 36 of article VIII of the Convention, the Executive Board decided to request that SAR within 90 days fulfilled the following actions", - says the communiqué.
Among what is required from Syria - "to declare to the Secretariat of the factories where the chemical weapons... used 24, 25 and 30 March 2017 have been designed, manufactured and stored," "to declare the current presence of chemical weapons, including sarin, sarin precursors, chlorine, which is not intended for purposes not prohibited under the Convention, as well as enterprises producing chemical weapons and related enterprises." Finally, the third requirement is "to resolve all outstanding issues relating to the initial statements of holdings and the program of chemical weapons".
After 100 days, the Director-General of the OPCW will provide the Executive Board and all of its member countries report how did Syria these requirements.
"If the SAR does not fully perform all the steps within a specified period of 90 days, the Director-General will report on the status of implementation of this decision at all regular sessions of the Executive Board... If ATS does not correct the situation, the Executive Board decided to recommend to the conference of the countries-participants of the organization at the next meeting to take a decision on necessary in connection with these actions," - noted in the OPCW.
The OPCW on April 8 published a report on the investigation of chemical attacks in Syria to 2017. According to the findings of the investigation team, air strikes in the province of Hama, using shells with chlorine, and sarin was made by the Syrian air force. The Syrian foreign Ministry said that the report of the OPCW contains fake and fabricated conclusions, which aim at distorting the facts and blaming the government of Syria.
Russia and the Syrian government has repeatedly accused the OPCW of bias in investigations of accidents in the territory of the Arab Republic of and questioning done by the technical Secretariat of the OPCW findings. Syrian authorities have stated that they never used chemical weapons against civilians and terrorists, and the entire chemical Arsenal was removed from Syria under control of the OPCW.