ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The global chemical weapons watchdog held a rare emergency meeting in The Hague on Thursday to discuss concerns over stockpiles of chemical weapons in Syria after the collapse of the regime.
Head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Fernando Arias expressed concerns about Israeli airstrikes on military facilities in Syria.
“We do not know yet whether these strikes have affected chemical weapons related sites. Such airstrikes could create a risk of contamination,” he said, adding that the airstrikes could lead to evidence and equipment being lost “without control.”
According to the statement, OPCW has been in contact with high-ranking officials from the United Nations and hopes to send a team of experts to investigate 27 sites that they have identified and other locations that may have been involved in the production or stockpiling of chemical weapons.
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham rebel group that led the offensive that toppled Assad, told Reuters that they are coordinating with international organizations to control chemical weapon sites.
OPCW said they have not received any official notification from the new authorities in Syria.
After Assad was ousted, Israel has carried out more than 350 airstrikes on military sites in Syria.
Chemical weapons have been used in Syria by the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad as well as non-state actors. A joint investigation between the OPCW and UN earlier this year identified the use of mustard gas by the Islamic State (ISIS) on three different occasions.
Arias said the “victims deserve that perpetrators that we identified be brought to justice and held accountable for what they did and that investigations continue.”
In 2013, Syria signed onto the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which requires all members to disclose and dismantle their chemical weapons programs. The Assad regime destroyed some of its stockpile and the OPCW has urged Syria to fulfill its obligations under the convention.
The OPCW is the implementing body of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which came into force in 1997. With 193 member states, their goal is to eliminate chemical weapons globally.
The organization was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013.
The Nobel Committee stated at the time, “The conventions and the work of the OPCW have defined the use of chemical weapons as a taboo under international law. Recent events in Syria, where chemical weapons have again been put to use, have underlined the need to enhance the efforts to do away with such weapons.”
