Topic: OPCW Response to the 4 April 2017 Incident (Read 248 times)

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In accordance with CWC and the relevant decisions of the OPCW Executive Council as well as UN Security Council Resolution 2118 (2013), the Syrian Arab Republic and all groups and parties in Syria are obliged not to develop, produce, retain or use chemical weapons or toxic chemicals as weapons.

OPCW Response to the 4 April 2017 Incident

The OPCW is investigating the incident in southern Idlib under the on-going mandate of the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), which is “to establish facts surrounding allegations of the use of toxic chemicals, reportedly chlorine, for hostile purposes in the Syrian Arab Republic”.
The OPCW cannot and will not release information about an on-going investigation.
This policy exists to preserve the integrity of the investigatory process and its results as well as to ensure the safety and security of OPCW experts and personnel involved.
All parties are asked to respect the confidentiality parameters required for a rigorous and unimpeded investigation.

The OPCW Technical Secretariat has initiated contact with the Syrian authorities.
It has also requested that all States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, in a position to do so, share any information they may have regarding the allegations of chemical weapons use in the Khan Sheikhun area of Idlib province in the Syrian Arab Republic.

The findings of the FFM will be submitted in a report to the OPCW Executive Council and States Parties of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

In response to persistent allegations of chemical weapon attacks in Syria, the FFM was set up in 2014 “to establish facts surrounding allegations of the use of toxic chemicals, reportedly chlorine, for hostile purposes in the Syrian Arab Republic”. The FFM is required to study available information relating to allegations of use of chemical weapons in Syria, including information provided by the Syrian Arab Republic and others. The FFM employs investigative methods to determine if chemical weapons have been used. It interviews witnesses and obtains environmental and biomedical samples and physical evidence for analysis.

Since May 2014, the OPCW has deployed the FFM in numerous occasions to the Syrian Arab Republic and outside of Syria and has kept States Parties informed of its work.

In 2015, the OPCW Executive Council and the UN Security Council endorsed the continual operation of the FFM.

Since its establishment, the FFM has looked into several incidents of allegations of use of chemical weapons in Syria. In this context, the FFM has confirmed with “high degree of confidence” that Chlorine and Mustard were used as weapons in its investigations into past allegations of chemical weapons use. These reports were submitted to States Parties to the CWC and also transmitted to the UN Security Council.

The OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism

The OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) was established by the UN Security Council (Resolution 2235, 7 August 2015) with the mandate to identify “to the greatest extent feasible” individuals, entities, groups, or governments who were perpetrators, organisers, sponsors or otherwise involved in the use of chemicals as weapons in Syria, where the OPCW FFM determines or has determined that a specific incident involved or likely involved the use of chemicals as weapons.
The JIM, as a subsidiary organ of the United Nations Security Council, carries out its further investigations and makes its findings as an independent body. It presents its reports to the Security Council, and informs the OPCW."

https://www.opcw.org/news/article/media-brief-reported-use-of-chemical-weapons-southern-idlib-syria-4-april-2017/


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