The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Syria quickly sworn to rid the country of the chemical weapons that remain after the fall of the government of Bashar al-Assad, and he appealed to the international help for help.
Asad Hassan Al-Shibani spoke during closed-door meetings at the organization for the ban on chemical weapons (OPCW) in The Hague, where he became the first Syrian Foreign Minister who spoke to the disarming agency.
After a Sarin gas attack in which hundreds of people were killed in 2013, Assad-conducted Syria joined the agency under an American Russian deal and 1,300 tonnes of chemical weapons and precursors were destroyed.
But three studies-by a joint U-OPCW mechanism, concluded the OPCW’s research and identification team and an investigation of the UN war crimes-that the troops of Syrian government under Assad used the nerve agent Sarin and Chlorit Bombs used in attacks during the civil war killed or wounded.
As part of his membership, Damascus was supposed to undergo inspections, but more than ten years the OPCW was prevented from discovering the true scale of his chemical weapon program.
“Syria is ready … to solve this decades of old problem that has been imposed on us by an earlier regime,” Shibani told delegates.
“The legal obligations arising from breaches that we have inherited are not created. Nevertheless, it is our commitment to dismantle everything that is left out, to put an end to this painful inheritance and to ensure that Syria becomes a nation in line with international standards. “
Earlier on Wednesday, the OPCW chef, Fernando Arias, called the political shift of Syria “a new and historical opportunity to obtain clarifications to the full extent and scope of the Syrian chemical arms program.”
Shibani said the planning had begun, but that the help of the international community would be crucial. Syria would require technical assistance, logistical help, capacity building, resources and expertise, he said.
“Although the Assad regime has stuck for many years, we understand the need to act quickly, but we also understand that this must be done thoroughly. We can’t succeed alone for that, “he said.
The indicated stock of Syria has never accurately reflected the situation, has concluded OPCW inspectors. They now want to visit around 100 locations that may have been bound by the decades of old chemical weapon program of Assad.
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