AMSTERDAM — Member nations voted Thursday to restore Syria’s standing at the global body that oversees the prohibition of chemical weapons, citing what they called “a significant change in circumstances” following the collapse of the Assad government.
Syria had its privileges suspended at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons back in 2021, after investigators determined that Syrian military forces had used toxic gases on multiple occasions throughout the country’s civil war.
While largely a symbolic gesture, the original suspension served as a political warning to Syria that violations of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention — which bans all battlefield use of chemical agents — would carry consequences.
“Following the fall of the Assad regime, the new Syrian authorities committed to fulfilling Syria’s obligations under the Convention and have since taken concrete steps,” the OPCW stated in its announcement.
Syria’s new leadership has pledged to cooperate with the international community to eliminate leftover weapons of mass destruction that could pose a risk of further spread.
A Syrian official revealed to Reuters in May that the country’s transitional government had discovered remnants of former President Bashar al-Assad’s secret chemical weapons program, including raw materials and munitions resembling those deployed in deadly gas attacks during the civil war.
Multiple investigations conducted by both the United Nations and the OPCW’s special Investigation and Identification Team determined that Syrian government forces had deployed the nerve agent sarin as well as chlorine barrel bombs — attacks that investigators concluded killed or wounded thousands of people.
Throughout that period, Syria and its military ally Russia consistently denied any use of chemical weapons.
The OPCW’s executive council said Thursday that it plans to keep a close watch on Syria’s compliance and will take whatever steps are needed to ensure the destruction of any remaining chemical weapons left behind by the former regime.
