REPORT OF THE OPCW FACT-FINDING MISSION IN SYRIA REGARDING THE INCIDENTS DESCRIBED IN COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE DEPUTY MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND EXPATRIATES AND HEAD OF THE NATIONAL AUTHORITY OF THE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC

NOTE BY THE TECHNICAL SECRETARIAT

REPORT OF THE OPCW FACT-FINDING MISSION IN SYRIA REGARDING THE INCIDENTS DESCRIBED IN COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE DEPUTY MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND EXPATRIATES AND HEAD OF THE NATIONAL AUTHORITY OF THE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1 At its Forty-Eighth Meeting, the OPCW Executive 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 this request, the Technical Secretariat (“Secretariat”) submitted a Note to address the future activities of the OPCW FFM (S/1255/2015, dated 10 March 2015).

1.2 The Secretariat received a note verbale from the Syrian Arab Republic (Note Verbale 150) providing information about incidents involving the alleged use of chemicals as a weapon, particularly chlorine. In addition, the Permanent Representation of the Syrian Arab Republic later submitted Notes Verbales 41, 43, and 47 detailing other incidents that potentially involved the use of chemicals as a weapon. In total, the notes referred to 26 incidents and 432 casualties.

1.3 Due to the seriousness of the allegations, the Director-General dispatched an OPCW team to collect the facts pertinent to the alleged chemical incidents as reported in the referenced notes verbales. The FFM deployed on 1 June, 1 August, and 13 October 2015. The team was composed of OPCW inspectors, consulting medical doctors, and interpreters. During the deployment, the FFM conducted its investigation by collecting testimonies, reviewing documents and information, and analysing blood samples provided by the Syrian national authorities, and by visiting certain locations deemed of interest in the Damascus area. In total, the team conducted approximately 75 interviews in relation to 6 incidents.

1.4 Through the evidence presented by the Syrian National Authority, the medical records reviewed, the prevailing narrative of all interviews, and secondary evidence analysis, the FFM cannot confidently determine whether or not a chemical was used as a weapon in any of the alleged incidents listed in paragraph 3.38 of this report.

1.5 From the results of blood sample analyses, the FFM is of the opinion that there is a high degree of probability that some of those identified as being involved in the alleged incident in Darayya on 15 February 2015 were at some point exposed to sarin or a sarin-like substance. In order to determine how, when, or under what circumstances the exposure occurred, further investigation would be required to complement the interviews carried out and the documents reviewed.

1.6 Regarding the other incidents (listed in paragraphs 3.38 and 3.40 of this report), the FFM is of the view that those affected in the alleged incidents may have, in some instances, been exposed to some type of non-persistent, irritating substance. The FFM is of the opinion that it would have been able to more definitively establish facts in relation to these incidents, had it been able to obtain complementing evidence.