The Syrian Foreign Ministry has unequivocally rejected the findings of the latest report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) accusing the Syrian Army of committing a chlorine gas attack in the city of Duma that resulted in 43 deaths during a military operation in 2018.
«Syria totally rejects the report issued yesterday by the so-called ‘Investigation and Identification Team’ of the OPCW on the alleged incident of chlorine use in Duma in April 2018, in addition to its findings,» according to a statement carried by the official Syrian news agency SANA in which it accuses the United States and the West of distorting the organization’s objectives for political purposes.
According to the assessment presented on Friday, OPCW investigators claimed 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 casualties.
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 the attack.
In addition, Syria calls on all states parties to the International Convention against the Use of Chemical Weapons, as well as the United Nations to make an exercise of responsibility to «preserve the independence, credibility and future» of the OPCW in the face of the efforts of «the United States and several Western countries» to «politicize its tasks and use the organization as a tool to achieve their political objectives».
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
