By Ahmed Asmar
Syria is set to attend a meeting of the international chemical weapons watchdog on Wednesday for the first time in the country’s history.
“Today, for the first time in Syria's history, I am attending the Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague,” Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani wrote on his X account.
“This participation reaffirms Syria's commitment to international security and honors those who lost their lives suffocating at the hands of the Assad regime.”
The former regime of Bashar al-Assad has faced accusations of launching dozens of chemical attacks to suppress anti-government and popular protests that erupted in March 2011 and demanded a peaceful transition of power.
In 2013, the Assad regime launched missiles carrying sarin gas, a fast-acting toxic nerve agent, on the eastern Ghouta area in the Damascus countryside, killing more than 1,400 people, including hundreds of children.
Following the deadly attack, Syria under the Assad regime joined the OPCW on Sept. 13, 2013. That same month, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2118 concerning Syria’s chemical weapons.
On April 21, 2021, OPCW member states voted to suspend some of Syria’s membership rights after investigations confirmed the use of chemical weapons in attacks on Al-Lataminah in Hama in March 2017 and Saraqib in Idlib in February 2018.
Last month, Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa met in Damascus with a delegation from OPCW, led by director-general Fernando Arias Gonzalez.
Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on Dec. 8, ending the regime of the Baath Party, which had been in power since 1963.