Report of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria Regarding the Incident of 2 August 2016 as Reported in the Note Verbale of the Syrian Arab Republic Number 69 dated 16 August 2016

S/1444/2016

21 December 2016

Original: ENGLISH

NOTE BY THE TECHNICAL SECRETARIAT

REPORT OF THE OPCW FACT-FINDING MISSION IN SYRIA REGARDING THE INCIDENT OF 2 AUGUST 2016 AS REPORTED IN THE NOTE VERBALE OF THE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC NUMBER 69 DATED 16 AUGUST 2016

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1 At its Forty-Eighth Meeting, the OPCW Executive Council (hereinafter “the Council”) adopted a decision entitled “Reports of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria” (EC-M-48/DEC.1, dated 4 February 2015) in which, inter alia, it requested the Director-General to provide information on the progress of the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) and specific plans, schedules, and their implementation to the Council at its next regular session. In response to that request, the Technical Secretariat (hereinafter “the Secretariat”) submitted a Note to address the future activities of the FFM (S/1255/2015*, dated 10 March 2015 and Add.1, dated 13 March 2015).

1.2 The Secretariat received Note Verbale 69 (dated 16 August 2016) from the Syrian Arab Republic, providing information about an incident in Al-Awamid, Aleppo, involving the alleged use of chemicals as a weapon. The note verbale included a request that the FFM “investigate a toxic gas attack which took place in Aleppo on August the 2nd, 2016”.

1.3 Following this request, the Director-General dispatched a team to collect the facts pertinent to the alleged chemical incident as reported in the aforementioned note verbale. The FFM deployed on 4 September and 11 October 2016. The team was composed of OPCW inspectors and interpreters. During the deployment, the FFM conducted its investigation by collecting testimonies, reviewing documents and information provided by the Syrian authorities, and by visiting certain locations deemed of interest in the Damascus area. In total, the team conducted 25 interviews in relation to the reported incident.

1.4 Regarding the aforementioned alleged incident in Al-Awamid, the FFM is of the view that the persons affected in the incident may have, in some instances, been exposed to some type of non-persistent, irritating substance. The FFM considers that while the general clinical presentation of those affected in the incident is consistent with brief exposure to any number of chemicals or environmental insults, the visual and olfactory description of the potential irritant does not clearly indicate any specific chemical.

1.5 Furthermore, based on the evidence presented by the National Authority of the Syrian Arab Republic, the medical records that were reviewed, the results of the sample analyses, and the prevailing narrative from all of the interviews, the FFM cannot confidently determine whether or not a specific chemical was used as a weapon in the investigated incident. From the results of the analyses of the samples, the FFM is of the opinion that none of the chemicals identified are likely to be the cause of death of the casualties in the reported incident.