FILE PHOTO: A damaged picture of Syria's Bashar al-Assad lies on the floor inside Qamishli international airport, after Syrian rebels announced that they have ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Qamishli, Syria December 9, 2024. REUTERS/Orhan Qereman/File Photo
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -The head of the chemical weapons watchdog said on Thursday he would ask Syria's new leaders to grant investigators access to the country to continue work identifying perpetrators of attacks that killed and injured thousands during the civil war.
Addressing a special session of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Fernando Arias said his office had seen positive signals from Syria about the need to rid the country of chemical weapons, but no formal request had been received.
The 41-member executive council of the OPCW was meeting in The Hague to discuss next steps after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's sudden toppling.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, U.S. ambassador to the OPCW, Nicole Shampaine, said Washington viewed Assad's fall as an extraordinary chance to rid Syria of chemical weapons.
"We want to finish the job and it's really an opportunity for Syria's new leadership to work with the international community, work with the OPCW to get the job done once and for all," Shampaine said.
Arias said the evolving political landscape in Syria offered an opportunity for the organisation to finally obtain clarifications on the full extent and scope of the Syrian chemical weapons programme after 11 years of inspections.
Warning of proliferation risks, he said "victims deserve that perpetrators that we identified be brought to justice" after their multiple use during the 13-year civil war.
He will seek access for the OPCW's Investigation and Identification Team. That unit and a joint U.N.-OPCW mechanism have already identified Syria's armed forces as having used chemical weapons nine times between 2015 and 2017.
The culprits of many attacks remain unidentified.
DISORDER
Syria joined the OPCW in 2013 under a U.S.-Russian deal and 1,300 metric tons of chemical weapons and precursors were destroyed by the international community. But after more than a decade of inspections, Syria still possesses banned munitions.
Assad-ruled Syria and its military ally Russia always denied using chemical weapons in the civil war.
With Syria still in disorder with myriad armed groups around the shattered country, the OPCW will be concerned to act quickly to prevent any chemical weapons being used.
Echoing such concerns, Germany's ambassador to the OPCW, Thomas Schieb, said: "Relevant storehouses and facilities need to be identified, secured and opened for inspection by the OPCW."
"We will judge the new Syrian authorities by their action. Now is the opportunity to finally and verifiably destroy the remnants of Assad’s chemical weapons programme..."
(Reporting by Anthony DeutschEditing by Mark Heinrich and Gareth Jones)
