Chemical weapons watchdog restores Syria’s voting rights, citing progress

Syria regains voting rights in the OPCW as new leadership makes progress in addressing chemical weapons issues.The global chemical weapons’ watchdog has announced it has handed voting rights back to Syria because “concrete steps” have been taken to address outstanding issues since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.In a statement published on Thursday, the Organisation for the Prohibition of chemical weapons (OPCW) said the decision follows a “significant change” in circumstances since Syria was suspended in 2021. That was due to the former government’s failure to declare the full scope of its chemical weapons programme and the repeated use of poison gas during the civil war.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3French president visits Syria ahead of NATO summit in Turkiyelist 2 of 3Eighteen wounded as explosions rock Damascus during Macron’s visit to Syrialist 3 of 3Syria’s capital rocked by blasts during Macron visitend of listSince a lightning offensive ousted long-time ruler al-Assad in 2024, “the new Syrian authorities committed to fulfilling Syria’s obligations under the Convention and have since taken concrete steps to cooperate with the Technical Secretariat to achieve this goal”, read the statement.Actions taken by the new government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa include facilitating verification activities and taking initial steps in destroying identified remnants.“These decisions reflect the tangible progress achieved through continued cooperation and constructive engagement between the Technical Secretariat and the Syrian Arab Republic, with the support of the wider community of States Parties,” said OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias.In 2013, Syria joined the OPCW and agreed to the destruction of its weapons to be supervised by the watchdog. Back then, Syria was believed to possess about 1,000 tonnes of toxins and had agreed to destroy them under a joint Russian-US proposal designed to avert a US military strike on its territory.