III. Allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria

Chapter:

12. Chemical, biological and health security threats

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2022

Author(s):

Filippa Lentzos, Una Jakob

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) continued to investigate allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria and to clarify the status of Syria’s chemical weapons programme. All chemical weapons facilities and stockpiles which Syria had declared upon its accession to the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 2013 were destroyed under OPCW verification by 2016.¹ However, since OPCW inspections have yielded indications that the initial declarations by the Syrian Arab Republic were neither complete nor accurate, and since chemical weapons attacks in Syria continued even after the destruction of the declared chemical weapons programme was completed, the OPCW has undertaken a number of activities to address the chemical weapons issue in Syria.² These activities are carried out by the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), the Declaration Assessment Team (DAT) and the Investigation and Identification Team (IIT), and through inspections at sites that previous OPCW and United Nations investigations have found to be involved in Syria’s chemical weapons activities (see table 12.1).³