The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons strips Syria of its rights within the organization

The member states of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) agreed to strip Syria of its rights in the organization, after the report confirmed the responsibility of the Assad regime in a number of chemical weapons attacks, making this measure the first of its kind to be taken as a measure to punish the Assad regime.

The member states of the organization voted with the required two-thirds majority in favor of a memorandum supported by several countries, including France, Britain and the United States, which stipulates suspending the “rights and privileges” of Damascus within the organization, including its right to vote.

“In light of this result, the draft resolution was adopted,” announced Jose Antonio Zapalguitia Trejo, who chaired the meeting of member states at the organization’s headquarters in The Hague, and 87 countries voted to approve the memorandum, compared to 15 countries that voted against it, led by Syria, Russia, China and Iran, and 34 countries abstained.
Of the 193 member states, 136 participated in the vote.

The memorandum states that the organization “decided, after scrutiny and without prejudice to Syria’s duties under the agreement (on chemical weapons), to suspend the rights and privileges” of Syria.
Syria is accused of not responding to the organization’s questions after it published a report last year stating that the Assad regime used sarin gas and chlorine in 2017 against the town of Al-Lataminah at a time when it was controlled by the revolutionary factions, in violation of the chemical weapons ban agreement.

The pressure on Syria increased last week after the publication of a second report by the organization accusing the Assad regime of using chlorine gas in 2018 in an attack on the town of Saraqib, which was then under the control of the revolutionary factions.