Syria (Chemical Weapons): Briefing and Consultations
Tomorrow morning (7 March), the Security Council will hold an open briefing, followed by closed consultations, on the Syria chemical weapons track. The meeting is the regular meeting on the implementation of resolution 2118 of 27 September 2013, which was adopted unanimously by the Council and requires the verification and destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu is the anticipated briefer.
Tomorrow’s meeting will be the Council’s first session on the Syria chemical weapons file since the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. (For more information, see the brief on Syria in our March 2025 Monthly Forecast.) In a marked departure from the Assad government’s non-cooperative approach to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the new caretaker authorities in Damascus have been engaging constructively with the Organisation, which has led to concrete progress. In her briefing tomorrow, Nakamitsu is expected to update Council members on these developments, which have signalled a break from the deadlock and lack of progress that has characterised the dossier for over 11 years.
On 5 March, Syria’s caretaker Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani made an official visit to The Hague and addressed the 108th session of the OPCW’s Executive Council at the Organisation’s headquarters. Shaibani emphasised the new Syrian authorities’ commitment to “destroy any remains of the chemical weapons programme developed under the Assad regime, to put an end to this painful legacy, to bring justice to victims, and to ensure that the compliance with international law is a solid one”. He added that Syria would need the support of the international community and the OPCW to achieve these goals. OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias welcomed the visit, saying that the Organisation stands ready to support the new authorities in meeting Syria’s obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), noting that a team of technical experts from the OPCW Secretariat will be deployed to Damascus “in the coming days”.
Shaibani’s speech at the OPCW headquarters came a month after an 8 February visit by Arias and his team to Damascus. During the visit, the Director-General held meetings with both Shaibani and Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, which were described by the OPCW as “long, productive and very open” discussions. Arias presented the caretaker authorities with the OPCW Secretariat’s Nine-point Action Plan for Syria, which will serve as a roadmap for the OPCW and Syria’s caretaker authorities to work together towards eliminating chemical weapons present in Syria. In the action plan, the Secretariat proposes, among other things, to deploy a large comprehensive team of experts to Syria and to assist the Syrian authorities in composing an inventory of existing chemical weapons sites, equipment, munitions and supporting evidence. Once this is completed the authorities would provide the OPCW with a new declaration, in line with the CWC provisions, followed by the eventual destruction phase of the chemical weapons.
According to the OPCW Director-General’s 24 February report on progress on the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons programme, the OPCW delegation that visited Syria also included members from the Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) for the first time since the IIT’s establishment. (The IIT was established to identify perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks in Syria following a June 2018 decision of the Conference of State Parties [CSP] to the CWC, in the wake of the Security Council’s failure to renew the UN-OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism established through resolution 2235 of 7 August 2015 due to three consecutive vetoes by Russia at the end of 2017.)
At tomorrow’s meeting, Council members are expected to acknowledge these positive developments. Some may emphasise that the new authorities in Damascus have a historic opportunity to ensure the complete destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons programme, in line with Syria’s obligations under the CWC and the legal framework outlined in resolution 2118.
Council members may also encourage the Syrian caretaker authorities to maintain frank discussions with the OPCW and further call on all parties to cooperate fully with the Organisation, including by allowing immediate and unfettered access to any sites or individuals deemed important to its mandate.
Several Council members may also welcome the visit of the IIT members and the future implications of this development in identifying perpetrators of chemical weapons attacks and in advancing accountability efforts in Syria. Over the years, Council members have presented starkly different views on the responsibility for the use of chemical weapons in Syria, the credibility of the OPCW’s work, and numerous procedural aspects of the OPCW’s decision-making bodies, including the IIT. While several members have consistently expressed support for the OPCW’s work, maintaining that it is credible and essential, other members, such as China and Russia, regularly claimed that its work is biased and politicised. Tomorrow’s meeting will be the first opportunity for the Council to discuss these issues within the context of the substantial shift in Syria’s political landscape and will thus serve as an insight into whether some Council members will remain critical of the OPCW’s work in support of accountability in Syria.
Members may also reiterate their strong condemnation of the use of chemical weapons and raise concerns about the risks of their proliferation, while highlighting the need for the OPCW to urgently identify and contain the weapons. The Organisation has concluded that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) used sulphur mustard in Syria in three instances. Some Council members may note that as long as the weapons remain unaccounted for, they risk falling into the hands of ISIL or any other non-State armed groups. Members may reference in this regard the Secretary-General’s 31 January report on the threat posed by ISIL, which highlighted a risk of the group exploiting the volatile situation in Syria to strengthen its position.
Council members may also raise concerns that actions being taken by regional actors may hinder Syria’s implementation of the CWC and call on them to refrain from any such actions. Shortly after the fall of Assad’s government, Israel conducted dozens of airstrikes on chemical weapons sites in Syria, in what it said was an attempt to avoid their proliferation into extremists’ hands. In a 12 December 2024 statement, Arias warned that strikes on chemical weapons-related sites could create a risk of contamination, of the destruction of evidence related to the past use of chemical weapons, and of dangerous chemicals or related equipment being lost, which could complicate the work of the OPCW.
Some speakers may also emphasise the need to provide the OPCW with additional financial and human resources to carry out any future missions in Syria, a point which was also raised in the Director-General’s 24 February report. Given the access to Syria granted to the OPCW and the current uncertainty on the full extent of the chemical weapons programme, some Council members may call for increased financial contributions and enhanced support to the Organisation.
