The world's chemical weapons watchdog on Thursday restored Syria's voting rights after a four-year suspension, pointing to a “significant change in circumstances” since the fall of Bashar Al Assad.
The decision by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons marked a milestone for Syria's new authorities, who have sought to distance themselves from the legacy of a government repeatedly accused of using banned chemical agents during the country's devastating civil war.
The new Syrian government has “committed to fulfilling Syria's obligation under the [Chemical Weapons] Convention and … since taken concrete steps to co-operate … to achieve this goal,” the OPCW said in a statement.
The decision “marks another milestone in the OPCW's efforts to achieve the complete and verified elimination of all remaining chemical weapons associated with the former Syrian government”, said Fernando Arias, the watchdog's director general.
The move reverses a decision made in 2021, when OPCW member states stripped Syria of its voting rights after investigations concluded that its air force had used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine gas against civilians. It was the first time a member state had lost its voting rights under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
At the UN in New York in March, Syria unveiled a US-backed plan to eliminate the remnants of the Assad-era chemical weapons programme aimed at closing one of the most harrowing chapters of the country’s civil war.
OPCW inspectors have since established a permanent presence inside Syria, allowing them to visit suspected chemical weapons sites, collect evidence and interview witnesses linked to attacks carried out during the conflict.
Mr Arias has also travelled to Damascus, while Syrian officials have resumed engagement with the watchdog at its headquarters in The Hague.
The issue has plagued Syria for more than a decade. In 2013, after a suspected sarin attack on the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta killed more than 1,000 people, Syria agreed under US and Russian pressure to join the OPCW and surrender its declared chemical arsenal, averting threatened western military strikes.
Yet international investigators later concluded that the Assad government had concealed parts of its programme and repeatedly obstructed inspections, leaving unresolved questions about undeclared stockpiles and production sites.
