The resolution, proposed by 48 countries including Britain, France, Germany and the United States, states that Syria has caused “serious damage to the object and purpose of the Chemical Weapons Convention”.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) decided today to limit chemical exports to Syria, accusing Damascus of violating the chemical weapons control treaty it has signed.
The move comes after Russia yesterday lost its seat on the OPCW executive board, the organization’s decision-making body based in The Hague.
Most countries attending the OPCW’s annual meeting voted in favor of “collective measures” to end the transfer of certain chemicals and chemical-making technologies to Syria.
The goal is to prevent “the supply, sale or transfer, directly or indirectly, of precursor chemicals and dual-use chemical manufacturing facilities and equipment, as well as related technologies,” according to the resolution.
These measures were taken due to Syria’s “continued possession and use of chemical weapons” and its “failure to make an accurate and complete declaration and to destroy all of its undeclared chemical weapons and production facilities,” according to this text.
The resolution, proposed by 48 countries, including Britain, France, Germany and the United States, states that Syria has caused “serious damage to the object and purpose of the Chemical Weapons Convention”.
In 2013, Syria accepted to join the OPCW shortly after an alleged gas attack killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus.
However, the OPCW has since accused President Bashar al-Assad’s regime of continuing its chemical attacks on civilians as part of the brutal civil war plaguing the Middle Eastern country.
Syria’s OPCW voting rights were suspended in 2021 in an unprecedented sanction following gas attacks on civilians in 2017, which Damascus denies.
The Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force in 1997.
The OPCW was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 for its efforts to rid the world of the scourge of chemical weapons.
Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011 after a government crackdown on peaceful protests, has turned into a deadly conflict involving foreign forces and jihadists from around the world.
The war has already left behind more than half a million dead and has forced almost half of the pre-war population to leave their homes.
Source :Skai
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