According to Colum Lynch and David Kenner, writing in Foreign Policy, the new OPCW report found that the Syrian government “failed to provide sufficient access to senior leaders in its chemical weapons program or to adequately account for 2,000 aerial bombs that Syria acknowledges were created to deliver mustard gas”. At least three children died and hundreds were take to hospital with breathing problems and burns.
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It also determined there was sufficient information to conclude that Islamic State militants were the “only entity with the ability, capability, motive and the means to use sulfur mustard gas in Marea on 21 August, 2015”.
Syria gave up its chemical weapons arsenal in 2013 and early 2014.
It is now impossible to deny that the Syrian regime has repeatedly used industrial chlorine as a weapon against its own people in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and UN Security Council Resolution 2118.
While State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau would not preview what actions the USA would take at the Security Council, she told reporters Thursday that “the administration will continue to pursue all appropriate legal and diplomatic options” to hold the responsible parties accountable.
UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon submitted the report to the members of the Security Council Wednesday.
“In this new determined spirit by the United Nations, I hope the UNSC will take demonstrative action when it discusses the findings on Tuesday”.
Calling the use of chemical weapons “a barbaric tool, repugnant to the conscience of mankind”, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power urged the Security Council to take “strong and swift action” against the perpetrators.
The inquiry did not recommend further investigation of the remaining three cases in Kafr Zita on April 11, 2014, and Al-Tamanah on April 29-30, 2014, and May 25-26, 2014. The report said it received 130 new cases of alleged chemical weapons attacks using sarin, chlorine, mustard gas and nerve gas from December 2015 to August 2016. Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch, said the council must ensure that those responsible for “the sickening, illegal use of chemical weapons in Syria. are brought to justice in a court of law”. In 2013, the Syrian regime agreed to the removal and destruction of its chemical weapons and also joined the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Although Moscow supported the establishment of the UN-OPCW investigation, it has blocked sanctions and other action against the Assad regime, which is a close ally. At the time, Islamic State fighters were attacking rebels. Both cases involved the use of chlorine.
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There was insufficient information to reach a conclusion in the final three of the nine cases that the panel has been investigating for the past year.
