After accusing Damascus of breaking its hazardous armaments control pact, the international chemical weapons watchdog agreed on Thursday to stop supplying chemicals to Syria.
Shortly after a purported deadly gas attack near Damascus claimed more than 1,400 lives, Syria decided to join the Organization for the Prohibition of deadly Weapons in 2013.
However, the international monitoring organization, situated in The Hague, has since charged that the government of President Bashar al-Assad is still using chemical weapons against people in the violent civil conflict raging in the Middle East.
In 2021, Syria faced a historic setback when its voting privileges in the OPCW were revoked due to the use of poison gas against people in 2017. Damascus has denied the allegations.
On Thursday, a majority of countries at the OPCW’s annual meeting voted for “collective measures” to stop the transfer of certain chemicals and chemical-making technology to Syria.
These measures include beefing up export controls and preventing “the direct or indirect supply, sale, or transfer of chemical precursors and dual-use chemical manufacturing facilities and equipment and related technology,” the resolution said.
Put forward by 48 countries including Britain, France, Germany and the United States, the resolution said Syria had caused “serious damage to the object and purpose of the Chemical Weapons Convention.”
It pointed out Syria’s “continued possession and use of chemical weapons” as well as “its failures to submit an accurate and complete declaration and to destroy all its undeclared chemical weapons and production facilities.”
The civil war in Syria began in 2011 when the government’s suppression of nonviolent protests turned into a bloody struggle that drew in foreign forces and international extremists.
Over 500,000 people have lost their lives in the conflict, and about half of the nation’s pre-war population has been displaced.
