Pressure mounts on Syria, Russia over chemical weapons

Syria and Russia faced renewed pressure over alleged chemical weapons use as the global toxic arms body met in The Hague on Monday.

Fernando Arias, head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said Damascus has failed to declare its chemical weapons and admit inspectors.

The nerve agent poisoning of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in Russia meanwhile continues to pose a “serious threat” to world efforts to eradicate chemical armaments, Arias added.

Syria denies the use of chemical weapons and insists it has handed over its weapons stockpiles under a 2013 agreement with the US and Russia, prompted by a suspected sarin gas attack that killed 1,400 in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.

But Syria was stripped of its OPCW voting rights in April after a probe blamed it for further poison gas attacks, and it will remain suspended until it has fully declared its chemical weapons and weapons-making facilities.

“To date Syria has not completed any of these measures,” Arias told the meeting, adding that its declarations “still cannot be considered accurate and complete.”

Damascus has denied a visa to an OPCW weapons inspector, leading the organisation to refuse to deploy a team there, Arias said.

He said he was arranging a meeting with Syria’s foreign minister to discuss the alleged breaches.

– ‘Serious threat’ –

Russia meanwhile has been accused of failing to answer questions about the 2020 Novichok poisoning of Navalny, which Western powers have blamed on the Kremlin.

“The use of chemical weapons on the territory of the Russian Federation also poses a serious threat to the convention,” Arias said.

Moscow asked OPCW inspectors to come to Russia to investigate, but Arias said the visit had not taken place because the Russian authorities set conditions that were stricter than those imposed by other countries.

London and Washington meanwhile pushed Moscow and Damascus on chemical weapons.

“We call again on Russia and the Assad regime to comply with their obligations,” Bonnie Jenkins, the US under secretary of state for arms control and international security, said in a statement to the meeting.

British junior defence minister Annabel Goldie said Russia must not only answer questions on Navalny but also the Novichok poisoning of former KGB agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018.

“There is no plausible explanation for these poisonings other than Russian involvement and responsibility,” Goldie said.

Moscow denies involvement in either incident.

Syria’s ambassador rejected the “politicised” decision to suspend its rights at the OPCW.

“It encourages terrorist groups to keep staging their alleged incidents,” said envoy Milad Atieh.

Damascus and Moscow have repeatedly alleged that Islamist extremists in Syria’s civil war have faked chemical attacks.

Russian ambassador Alexander Shulgin said the allegations against Moscow were “totally baseless” and a “grandiose scandal”.