The OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria is a mission of the

Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is an intergovernmental organisation and the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which entered into force on 29 April 1997. The OPCW, with its 193 member ...

(OPCW) to investigate some possible cases of the use of toxic chemicals in Syria during the civil war, including chlorine. The 21 August 2013

Ghouta chemical attack The Ghouta chemical attack, was a Chemical warfare, chemical attack carried out by the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in the early hours of 21 August 2013 in Ghouta, Syria during the Syrian civil war. Two Syrian opposition, oppos ...

used

sarin Sarin (NATO designation GB G-series, "B"">Nerve_agent#G-series.html" ;"title="hort for Nerve agent#G-series">G-series, "B" is an extremely toxic synthetic organophosphorus compound. The OPCW-Director General

Ahmet Üzümcü Ahmet Üzümcü (born August 30, 1951) is a Turkish career diplomat, who previously served as the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). He graduated from Foreign Relations Department of the Faculty ...

announced the creation of the mission on 29 April 2014. This initial mission was headed by Malik Ellahi. The Syrian Government agreed to the Mission. The Mission took over the work of the

OPCW-UN Joint Mission in Syria The OPCW-UN Joint Mission in Syria was jointly established on 16 October 2013 by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations (UN) to oversee the elimination of the Syrian chemical weapons program. The Join ...

, which had been formed to oversee the elimination of the Syrian chemical weapons program, and which ended its activities on 30 September 2014. On 4 September 2014, the head of the Joint Mission reported to the

UN Security Council The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, and ...

that 96% of Syria's declared stockpile, including the most dangerous chemicals, had been destroyed and preparation were underway to destroy the remaining 12 production facilities, a task to be completed by the OPCW Mission. On 4 January 2015, the OPCW stated that destruction was completed, though since then previously undeclared traces of compounds in a Syrian government military research site have been reported.

2014

On 16 June 2014 the mission published its first summary report (S/1191/2014), covering the period from 3 to 31 May 2014. Its second report (S/1212/2014) was circulated to States Parties on 10 September 2014. Its third report (S/1230/2014) was dated 18 December 2014. During its first visit in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

, the mission attempted on May 27 to conduct one field visit to

Kafr Zita Kafr Zita ( ar, كفر زيتا, Kafr Zaytā, also spelled Kfar Zita, Kafr Zayta, Kfar Zeita, Keferzita or Kafr Zeita) is a town in northern Syria, administratively part of the Hama Governorate, located 30 kilometers north of Hama. Nearby localitie ...

, in

Hama Governorate Hama Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة حماة / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥamā'') is one of the 14 Governorates of Syria, governorates of Syria. It is situated in western-central Syria, bordering Idlib Governorate, Idlib and Aleppo Governorates ...

, held by the opposition, where

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate betwee ...

gas was allegedly used for an attack on May 19, departing from government held

Homs Homs ( , , , ; ar, حِمْص / ALA-LC: ; Levantine Arabic: / ''Ḥomṣ'' ), known in pre-Islamic Syria as Emesa ( ; grc, Ἔμεσα, Émesa), is a city in western Syria and the capital of the Homs Governorate. It is Metres above sea level ...

. It aborted the mission after its "leading vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device", another vehicle was "attacked with automatic gun fire" and "the remaining two vehicles were intercepted by armed gunmen and members of the team detained for some time." The mission interviewed between 25 August and 5 September, in a safe location out of Syria, 37 witness of

attacks of the villages of Talmenes, in

Idlib Governorate Idlib Governorate ( ar, مُحافظة ادلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Idlib'') is one of the 14 governorates of Syria. It is situated in northwestern Syria, bordering Turkey's Hatay province to the north, Aleppo Governorate to the east, Hama ...

, on 21 and 24 April 2014, Al-Tamanah, in

, on 12, 18 and 30 April, 22 and 25 May 2014, and

, which suffered 14 attacks between 10 April and 30 August 2014) The third report presented the conclusions and evidence obtained from the interviewees. It estimates that those attacks were made with barrel bombs thrown from helicopters which killed 13 people — 3 in Talmenes, 8 in Al-Tamanah, and 2 in Kafr Zita.

2015

A further three missions were initiated by OPCW in 2015, which were headed by different personnel and the reports passed through Ban Ki-Moon by

to the President of the Security Council in November 2015 (S/2015/908). The reports (S/1318/2015, S/1319/2015, and S/1320/2015, all dated 29 October 2015) were titled "Interim report of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria regarding the incidents described in communications from the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates and the Head of the National Authority of the Syrian Arab Republic from 15 December 2014 to 15 June 2015", led by Steven Wallis, "Report of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria Regarding Alleged Incidents in the Idlib Governorate of the Syrian Arab Republic between 16 March and 20 May 2015", dated 20 October 2015 led by Leonard Phillips and "Report of the OPCW fact-finding mission in Syria regarding alleged incidents in Marea, Syrian Arab Republic August 2015". In early 2015 the mission disclosed previously undeclared traces of sarin and VX precursor compounds in a Syrian government military research site, the Scientific Studies and Research Centre, where use of those compounds had not been previously declared.

2017

The OPCW expressed "serious concern" over the

Khan Shaykhun chemical attack The Khan Shaykhun chemical attack took place on 4 April 2017 on the town of Khan Shaykhun in the Idlib Governorate of Syria. The town was reported to have been struck by an airstrike by government forces followed by massive civilian chemical ...

and said that its Fact-Finding Mission in Syria was "gathering and analysing information from all available sources." The following day, the Technical Secretariat of the OPCW, referring to the media reports, requested all member states of the

Chemical Weapons Convention The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), officially the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, is an arms control treaty administered by the Organisation for ...

to share available information on what it described preliminary as "allegations of use of chemical weapons in the Khan Shaykhun area of Idlib province in the Syrian Arab Republic." The OPCW declared on 19 April that lab results "indicate that the victims were exposed to sarin or a sarin-like substance."

2018

A chemical attack on Douma took place on 7 April 2018 that killed at least 49 civilians with scores injured, and which has been blamed on the Assad government. On 10 April, the Syrian and Russian governments invited the OPCW to send a team to investigate the attacks. The investigators arrived in Damascus on April 14, but were blocked from entering Douma, saying they can not guarantee their safety. Under the evacuation agreement for Ghouta, the Syrian military were unable to enter Douma, so

Russian Military Police The Military Police of Russia (russian: Военная полиция России, or VP) is the uniformed law enforcement branch of the Russian Armed Forces, which is known by the official name of Main Directorate of the Military Police (), a ...

assisted the OPCW mission. Concerns were also raised by US ambassador Kenneth D. Ward that Russia was trying to conceal the evidence, and that Russia had tampered with the site of the attack to thwart the OPCW fact finding mission; Russian Foreign Minister

Sergei Lavrov Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (russian: Сергей Викторович Лавров, ; born 21 March 1950) is a Russian diplomat and politician who has served as the Foreign Minister of Russia since 2004. Lavrov served as the Permanent Represe ...

denied any tampering had occurred. On 17 April, the OPCW was promised access to the site, but had not entered Douma and was unable to carry out the inspection because their teams came under fire during a reconnaissance to visit sites of the chemical weapons attack. According to the OPCW director, “On arrival at site one, a large crowd gathered and the advice provided by the UNDSS was that the reconnaissance team should withdraw,” and “at site two, the team came under small arms fire and an explosive was detonated. The reconnaissance team returned to Damascus”, and at the site "the incident reportedly resulted in two fatalities and an injury to a Russian soldier." Following that incident, several security measures were increased, and during the next visits the investigation team could work undisturbed. On 21 April, the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission visited a site in Douma to collect samples, and on 25 April visited a second site in Douma to collect further samples. The team also interviewed people related to incident in Damascus. On 4 May the OPCW announced that the initial deployment of the Fact-Finding Mission in Douma was complete, but that analysis of the samples would take at least three to four weeks. An interim report in July 2018 concluded that no evidence of nerve agents were found but that chlorinated organic agents were, and that further analysis was required to establish the provenance of a gas cylinder on the roof of the building hit in the strike. The FFM in its final report in March 2019 concluded that the evaluation and analysis of all the information gathered by the FFM provide reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon took place and that the chemical agent used was molecular chlorine.

Resolution on Syria

In November 2018, the committee voted for the 2019 Budget to inspect the situation of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic. The resolution passed with 99 in favor and 27 against.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , first1=Åke , last1=Sellström , author-link=Åke Sellström , first2=Scott , last2=Cairns , first3=Maurizio , last3=Barbeschi , title=Report of the United Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic on the alleged use of chemical weapons in the Ghouta area of Damascus on 21 August 2013 , publisher=United Nations , date=16 September 2013 , url=https://disarmament-library.un.org/UNODA/Library.nsf/780cfafd472b047785257b1000501037/e4d4477c9b67de9085257bf800694bd2/$FILE/A%2067%20997-S%202013%20553.pdf , access-date=27 April 2015 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130918143302/http://www.un.org/disarmament/content/slideshow/Secretary_General_Report_of_CW_Investigation.pdf , archive-date=18 September 2013 , url-status=dead , df=dmy-all Also: {{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518081618/https://disarmament-library.un.org/UNODA/Library.nsf/780cfafd472b047785257b1000501037/e4d4477c9b67de9085257bf800694bd2/$FILE/A%2067%20997-S%202013%20553.pdf, date=2015-05-18 International reactions to the Syrian civil war Chemical weapons in the Syrian civil war 2014 establishments

2014

2015

2017

2018

Resolution on Syria

See also

References