Chemical weapons watchdog votes to suspend Syria's rights

Watchdog voted to strip Syria of its rights in an unprecedented step ater a probe blamed Damascus for poison gas atacks; Assad to run for re-election in May; Syria’s Idlib to get first batch of COVID-19 vaccines

THE HAGUE

Member states of the global chemical weapons watchdog voted on Wednesday to strip Syria of its rights at the organisation in an unprecedented step after a probe blamed Damascus for poison gas attacks.

A motion backed by countries including France, Britain and the United States to suspend Syria’s “rights and privileges” obtained the required two-thirds majority in the vote at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

“In light of this result the drat resolution is adopted,” said Jose Antonio Zabalgoitia Trejo, the chairman of the meeting of the OPCW’s member states who had gathered at its headquarters in The Hague.

Eighty-seven countries voted in favour of the motion, 15 including Syria, Russia, China and Iran voted against, and 34 abstained, OPCW officials said. A total of 136 out of the agency’s 193 member states voted.

The measures are in response to an OPCW investigation last year that found the Syrian air force had used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine gas in three attacks on the village of Latamenah in 2017.