The head of the world’s chemical weapons watchdog on a visit Tuesday to Syrian capital Damascus said the remaining chemical weapons from the era of ousted president Bashar al-Assad must be urgently identified and destroyed.
“The most urgent priority now is to assess those sites of most concern from a proliferation perspective,” Dallafior said during a joint press conference with Syria’s foreign minister. “That means identifying and securing any remnants of the Assad-era chemical weapons programme,” she said.
Verified destruction in cooperation with the new government. This is a milestone. She said that “the OPCW verified the destruction by Syria of 42 chemical aerial bombs for the first time. The top diplomat said Syria had handed over more than 100,000 official documents to the OPCW and granted the watchdog access to records and witnesses. This came after a suspected chemical attack on the Eastern Ghouta suburb of Damascus that killed more than 1,000 people, according to US intelligence, and was attributed to the Syrian government, which denied involvement and blamed rebels.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani meanwhile said that eliminating chemical weapons was “a responsibility towards the victims and a commitment to ensuring that future generations never experience such atrocities again”. He said he had discussed with Dallafior “a roadmap to build on the progress made and move towards the final closure of the file”.
