Chemical Weapons Organization prohibits supplying Syria with materials to “manufacture toxic gases”

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in a statement that its annual conference “decided that Syria’s continued possession and use of chemical weapons,” its failure to disclose to the organization the contents of its stockpile, “and the destruction of undeclared chemical weapons and production facilities” harmed the International Chemical Weapons Convention.

69 member states voted in favor of the resolution, while 10 countries voted against it, and 45 countries abstained from voting.

The resolution calls on member states to take measures “to prevent the direct or indirect transfer of chemical raw materials or dual-use chemical manufacturing facilities and related equipment and technology to Syria.”

Syria joined the organization in 2013 to avoid the risk of air strikes in response to a chemical attack on Eastern Ghouta in the countryside of the capital, Damascus.

The Syrian regime denies using chemical weapons. But an investigation team from the organization seeking to identify the forces responsible for using chemical weapons found evidence indicating repeated use of chemical weapons by Syria in the civil war.

Other member states of the organization, which is headquartered in The Hague, have suspended Syria’s voting rights in the organization in 2021 due to the attacks.

The latest resolution also calls on the organization’s members to “provide support and assistance in criminal investigations or criminal proceedings for national or international accountability efforts,” according to the organization.

On Thursday, Reuters said that 10 Syrian human rights groups, international legal experts, and other figures are working to lay the foundations for establishing a new international court that would allow the Syrian regime to be tried for the attacks it carried out against Syrians with chemical weapons.

The agency added that the initiative was quietly worked on over a period of two years in the Dutch city of The Hague, where the headquarters of the International Criminal Court is located, explaining that a number of diplomatic meetings were held in the presence of experts to discuss the proposal and its political, legal and financial feasibility.

The proposal to establish the Extraordinary Court for Chemical Weapons was launched on November 30, which marks the commemoration of victims of chemical attacks around the world, explaining that the next step would be to agree on the wording of the treaty.