Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs A global chemical weapons monitor called for an emergency meeting this week over Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons.The MeetingThe Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on Monday reminded Syria of its obligations to safeguard and destroy hazardous substances, including chlorine gas, following rebel forces’ entry into the capital, Damascus, over the weekend.”Chemical weapons have been used in Syria on multiple occasions and victims deserve that perpetrators that we identified be brought to justice and held accountable for what they did and that investigations continue,” OPCW Secretary General Fernando Arias González said in his opening remarks of the meeting.”Our reports over the past few years have reached very clear conclusions and we hope that the new circumstances in Syria will allow this chapter to be closed soon,” Arias González said.In a rare step, the OPCW’s executive council convened a meeting with the hope that a new government might grant its team of 80 inspectors access to investigate Syria’s chemical weapons program.
An aerial view shows the Ummayad mosque in the old city of Syria’s capital Damascus on December 12, 2024. This week, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) called for an emergency meeting…
An aerial view shows the Ummayad mosque in the old city of Syria’s capital Damascus on December 12, 2024. This week, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) called for an emergency meeting over Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.
More
OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images
The OPCW, established in 1997 under the Chemical Weapons Convention, requires its 193 member states to declare and dismantle their chemical weapons programs. The organization, dedicated to the eradication of chemical weapons worldwide, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 for its efforts.Syria’s Chemical Weapons StockpileThe Assad government has denied deploying chemical weapons, but the OPCW has uncovered evidence pointing to their repeated use by Syrian forces during the country’s protracted civil war. Earlier this year, the organization also determined that the Islamic State group used mustard gas in an attack on the town of Marea.However, President Bashar al-Assad’s government collapsed over the weekend following a swift offensive by the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has been classified as a “foreign terrorist organization” by the U.S. since 2012.Members of the ousted Syrian government intend to gradually hand over power to a transitional cabinet led by Mohammed al-Bashir, who previously headed the rebel alliance’s “salvation government” in its southwestern Syrian stronghold.Tensions Across Middle EastArias González also voiced concern over the continued Israeli airstrikes in Syria.”We do not know yet whether these strikes have affected chemical weapons related sites. Such airstrikes could create a risk of contamination. Another real risk would be the destruction of valuable evidence for investigations by different independent international bodies related to past use of chemical weapons,” Arias González said.The OPCW last convened an extraordinary meeting in 2018 following a chemical attack in Douma, a town near Damascus, where around 40 people were killed by poison gas. Last year, the watchdog concluded that the Syrian Armed Forces had used chlorine gas canisters during a large-scale military operation.This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
