DAMASCUS: Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani said he would take part in a meeting Wednesday of the international chemical weapons watchdog in the Netherlands, nearly three months after Bashar Assad’s ouster.
“Today, for the first time in Syria’s history, I am attending the executive council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague,” Shaibani said in a statement on X.
“This participation reaffirms Syria’s commitment to international security and honors those who lost their lives suffocating at the hands of the Assad regime,” he added.
Assad was repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons during Syria’s 13-year civil war, and there has been widespread concern about the fate of Syria’s stockpile since his December 8 ouster.
More than a decade ago, Syria agreed to hand over its declared stockpile for destruction, but the OPCW has always been concerned that the declaration was incomplete and that more weapons remain unaccounted for.
Last month, OPCW chief Fernando Arias met Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa in a first visit to Damascus since Islamist-led rebels toppled Assad.
The visit raised hope that Syria could be definitively rid of chemical weapons after years of obstruction to the organization’s work.
Arias said that his trip marked “a reset” and that “after 11 years of obstruction by the previous authorities, the Syrian caretaker authorities have a chance to turn the page.”
The OPCW has expressed concern that valuable evidence may have been destroyed in the intense Israeli bombing of Syrian military assets that followed Assad’s overthrow.
Israel has said suspected chemical weapons sites were among its targets as it sought to stop the assets from falling into the hands of “extremists.”