The European Union has accepted the findings of the report published on Friday by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) that holds the Syrian Army responsible for a 2018 chlorine gas attack in the city of Duma that resulted in 43 deaths.
Brussels, in a statement sent on Saturday, «welcomes» the publication of the document and condemns, as the report concludes, the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Army.
«The report’s findings further confirm the systematic failure of the Syrian regime to comply with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and UN Security Council Resolution 2118 in this regard,» according to a statement from the EU’s external action service.
The EU stresses that the professionalism exhibited in the report represents an «important contribution to efforts to end impunity for the use of chemical weapons» in international conflicts.
«The use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere, at any time and under any circumstances is a violation of international law and may constitute the most serious of international crimes: war crimes and crimes against humanity,» according to the EU.
«Those identified as responsible for these reprehensible acts must and will be held accountable,» Brussels guarantees before assuring that «the European Union and its Member States will continue to work at national and international level to address chemical weapons attacks and other heinous crimes committed by the Syrian regime.»
«The EU reiterates its full support for the OPCW and underlines the complementarity of its work with the United Nations. We have full confidence in the objectivity, impartiality and independence of the Organization’s Technical Secretariat and its Investigation and Identification Team,» the European bloc adds.
The OPCW investigators have declared their findings, they say, based on 70 environmental and biomedical samples, the statements of more than 60 witnesses, as well as forensic images, satellite imagery, computer models of gas dispersion and trajectory simulations, all verified by independent experts.
According to the assessment presented on Friday, OPCW investigators claim that «at least one helicopter of the elite ‘Tiger Forces’ units dropped two yellow cylinders containing chlorine gas on two residential buildings in an area of Douma inhabited by civilians.» The incident resulted in at least 43 deaths and dozens of people affected.
The results lead the OPCW experts to conclude that «the Syrian Air Forces are responsible for this attack» in what is, according to the OPCW Director General, the Spanish diplomat Fernando Arias, «a violation of international law». «The world now knows the facts and it is up to the international community to take action,» he added.
It should be recalled that the OPCW had already confirmed in 2019 indications of a chemical attack on the locality, although at that time it did not point to the Syrian Army as responsible for what happened. The Syrian Foreign Ministry denounced anyway this initial document, which it described as a «set of blatant lies».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
