THE HAGUE: The global chemical weapons watchdog stripped Syria of its voting rights on Wednesday in an unprecedented punishment for poison gas attacks on civilians.
A majority of member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) backed the rebuke after a probe found Damascus carried out three attacks in 2017.
While the move is largely symbolic, it is the first time the Hague-based agency has meted out its maximum punishment to one of its members in the OPCW’s quarter-century history. Syria denies using chemical weapons, and warned the “very serious and dangerous” move would affect its work with the OPCW on eliminating its arsenal. Its ally Russia said it was a “black day” for the watchdog.
France introduced a motion on behalf of 46 countries including Britain and the United States to deprive Syria of its “rights and privileges” at the organisation, which Damascus joined in 2013. The move came after an OPCW report last year found the Syrian air force used sarin and chlorine on the village of Lataminah in March 2017. Syria then failed to meet a 90-day deadline to declare the weapons used in the attack. With a two-thirds majority required for the decision to pass, 87 countries voted in favour of the motion on Wednesday, 15 including Syria, Russia, China and Iran voted against, and 34 abstained.
Western powers hailed the decision, saying Syria had escaped punishment for the repeated use of chemical weapons during its decade-long civil war.
Russia’s OPCW ambassador Alexander Shulgin said the West was using the agency as a “political tool”. “Today we have a black day in the history of the OPCW. We are ashamed of what happened in this room,” Shulgin said.
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