The executive body of the global chemical arms watchdog has condemned Bashar Assad’s forces and Daesh for using toxic weapons and called for stepped up inspections, sources and officials said.
It is the first time the watchdog has found a state member to have violated the Chemical Weapons Convention, and came during a rare vote by its 41-member executive council, sources who attended the closed session said.
A four-page resolution put forward by Spain voiced “grave concern” over the findings of a one-year investigation by a joint panel of the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), according to a copy seen by AFP.
It “condemns in the strongest possible terms” the use of chemical weapons in Syria and calls on “all parties identified” in the report to “immediately desist from any further use.”
The joint UN-OPCW panel’s report released last month concluded that Assad’s forces had carried out three toxic arms attacks on villages in 2014 and 2015.
Syrian government helicopters flying from two regime-controlled air bases dropped chlorine barrel-bombs on the villages of Qmenas, Talmenes and Sarmin, in rebel-held Idlib province.
Daesh terrorists meanwhile were found to used mustard gas in August 2015 in Syria.
The OPCW resolution pointedly “demands” that Syria “comply fully with its obligations under the convention,” and mandated the watchdog as soon as safely possible to carry out inspections at the site of the attacks.
Based in The Hague, the OPCW usually works by consensus, but after weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations on the text it became impossible to reach unanimity, mainly due to Russian objections, said one source who attended the session.
When it was clear that “an overwhelming majority” supported the resolution it was decided to put it to a vote, the source said.
A total of 28 countries including Britain, France and the US voted in favor of condemning Syria and Daesh, gathering the two-thirds needed to pass, the sources said.
Four countries voted against — China, Iran, Russia and Sudan — while nine countries abstained.
“This decision confirms that the Assad regime and Daesh are responsible for using abhorrent chemical weapons against civilians,” said British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in a statement after the vote.
“There is a clear determination across the international community to hold those who have used these heinous weapons to account.”

Source: Arab News