Chemical Weapons Production Facilities Must be Verified to Ensure Full Compliance

Press Statement

Syrian Coalition

Istanbul, Turkey

November 06, 2013

In a recently delivered letter to the UN Security Council, as the Special Coordinator for the OPCW-UN Joint Mission’s briefs the UN Security Council, the Syrian Coalition demanded that the Security Council seek to achieve the regime’s full compliance with UNSC Resolution 2118 and cautioned against drawing hasty conclusions that all chemical weapons had been handed over and production equipment been destroyed, given the regime's record of dishonesty.

"The world has no objective guarantee that Assad has in fact disclosed all of Syria’s chemical weapons facilities,” stated Dr. Najib Ghadbian, Special Representative of the Syrian Coalition to the United Nations. “It is therefore of critical importance that the international community be vigilant in ensuring the complete disclosure and disarmament of the Assad regime’s chemical weapons programme.”

After years of denial and deceit about the existence of its chemical weapons programme—and only under the threat of military intervention by members of the UN Security Council—on September 21, 2013 the Assad regime publicly revealed to the OPCW that it had a total of 23 sites in which chemical weapons were alleged to have been produced and in many cases where filling and mixing equipment was stored.

Yet intelligence reports strongly suggest that the Assad regime has in fact not comprehensively disclosed all relevant information about its chemical weapons programme. Public media reports indicate that as many as 22 additional sites may as yet be undeclared by the Syrian regime. Moreover, the Joint Mission has until now been unable to gain access to 2 of the declared 23 sites, and this is in violation of UNSC Resolution 2118.

It is incumbent upon members of the UN Security Council to ensure that all violations of UNSC Resolution 2118 are met with immediate and severe consequences. It is, furthermore, imperative that “those responsible for any use of chemical weapons must be held accountable,” as stipulated by the UN Security Council.

Two months after one of the gravest war crimes committed in the 21st century, the perpetrators of this attack remain in power, and they continue to attack unarmed Syrian civilians indiscriminately. It is the responsibility of the UN Security Council to ensure that the Syrian regime is held to account and that justice for all Syrians is served, in accordance with international law.

We ask for Mercy for our martyrs, health for our wounded, and freedom for our detainees.

Long live Syria and its people, free and with honor.