OPCW Will Deploy Fact-Finding Mission to Douma, Syria (►https://www....
▻https://diasp.eu/p/6997497
OPCW Will Deploy Fact-Finding Mission to Douma, Syria
#Syria #OPCW #war #Chemical #Weapons #Douma #politics #international
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OPCW Will Deploy Fact-Finding Mission to #Douma, Syria
Tuesday, 10 April 2018▻https://www.opcw.org/news/article/opcw-will-deploy-fact-finding-mission-to-douma-syria
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — 10 April 2018 — Since the first reports of alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma, Syrian Arab Republic, were issued, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has been gathering information from all available sources and analysing it. At the same time, OPCW’s Director-General, Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, has considered the deployment of a Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) team to Douma to establish facts surrounding these allegations.
Today, the OPCW Technical Secretariat has requested the Syrian Arab Republic to make the necessary arrangements for such a deployment. This has coincided with a request from the Syrian Arab Republic and the Russian Federation to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma. The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly.
Background
Set up in 2014, the on-going mandate of the OPCW Fact Finding Mission (FFM) is “to establish facts surrounding allegations of the use of toxic chemicals, reportedly chlorine, for hostile purposes in the Syrian Arab Republic”. The OPCW cannot and will not release information about an on-going investigation. This policy exists to preserve the integrity of the investigatory process and its results as well as to ensure the safety and security of OPCW experts and personnel involved. All parties are asked to respect the confidentiality parameters required for a rigorous and unimpeded investigation.
As the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, the OPCW oversees the global endeavour to permanently and verifiably eliminate chemical weapons. Since the Convention’s entry into force in 1997 – and with its 192 States Parties – it is the most successful disarmament treaty eliminating an entire class of weapons of mass destruction.
Over ninety-six per cent of all chemical weapon stockpiles declared by possessor States have been destroyed under OPCW verification. For its extensive efforts in eliminating chemical weapons, the OPCW received the 2013 Nobel Prize for Peace.
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L’EI ’pourrait avoir fabriqué’ du gaz moutarde
▻http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2016/11/18/97001-20161118FILWWW00236-l-ei-pourrait-avoir-fabrique-du-gaz-moutarde.phpLe groupe Etat islamique (EI) « pourrait avoir fabriqué lui-même » le gaz moutarde utilisé en Irak et en Syrie, a assuré aujourd’hui à l’AFP le directeur général de l’Organisation pour l’interdiction des armes chimiques (OIAC), Ahmet Üzümcü, ajoutant en être « extrêmement inquiet ».
L’EI a droit au conditionnel sur ces sujets ?... faudra montrer aux syriens qu’ils en prennent de la graine.
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Chemical watchdog removes final batch of #syria stockpile
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/chemical-watchdog-removes-final-batch-syria-stockpileThe last of Syria’s declared chemical weapons have been shipped from the war-torn country and are en route for destruction at sea, the world’s chemical weapons watchdog said on Monday. “As we speak, the ship (carrying the last chemicals) has just left the port (of Latakia),” Ahmet Uzumcu, head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said at a press conference in The Hague. “Removing the stockpile of precursor and other chemicals has been a fundamental condition in the program to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons program,” Uzumcu said. read more
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Watchdog launches probe of Syria chlorine attack claims
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/19592The world’s chemical watchdog announced Tuesday that it is sending a fact-finding mission to probe the recent alleged use of chlorine gas in the #Syrian_conflict. The head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Ahmet Uzumcu, announced “the creation of an OPCW mission to establish facts surrounding allegations of use of chlorine in Syria”, a statement said. He told a meeting of the body’s executive council at headquarters in The Hague that the mission would leave soon. read more
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Syrian chemicals removal likely not completed before June: #UN
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/18254The removal and destruction of the most dangerous agents in #syria's #chemical_weapons arsenal may not be completed until the end of June, the head of the UN chemicals watchdog said on Thursday. Ahmet Uzumcu, who is in Rome to brief Italian authorities, told reporters the amount of chemicals that have reached a Syrian port so far was “not that high.” The destruction of chemical weapons began under the terms of a UN resolution that enshrined a US-Russian agreement for President Bashar al-Assad’s government to turn over its chemical weapons for destruction. read more
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Syrian Rebels Face Pressure to Let Inspectors Visit Chemical Sites
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/15/world/middleeast/syria.htmlAhmet Uzumcu, director general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which won the Nobel Peace Prize last Friday, told the BBC that the government of President Bashar al-Assad had been cooperating with inspectors who had reached 5 out of 20 chemical weapons production sites.
But some other sites had “access problems,” he said, reflecting perils facing inspectors who are trying to dismantle chemical weapons facilities as the war rages around them.
Some roads “change hands from one day to another, which is why we appeal to all sides in Syria to support this mission, to be cooperative and not render this mission more difficult,” Mr. Uzumcu said. “It’s already challenging.”
A Western diplomat in the Arab world, moreover, said that while the Syrian government was legally responsible for dismantling its chemical weapons, its opponents should cooperate in the process, as several chemical weapons sites were close to confrontation lines or within rebel-held territory.
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Clearest Indication Yet That Some Chemical Weapon Sites in Syria Are Under Rebel Control
▻http://www.emptywheel.net/2013/10/15/clearest-indication-yet-that-some-chemical-weapon-sites-in-syria-are-und
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