The OPCW Must Not Waste Further Resources on Any Allegations by the Syrian Regime Which Lacks Any Credibility and is Involved in Crimes Against Humanity
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On Wednesday, June 28, 2023, the Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) released its report on two incidents which were reported by the Syrian regime’s government to the OPCW’s Technical Secretariat on October 26, 2017. In its submission to the OPCW, the Syrian regime alleged that regime army personnel stationed in Kharbit Massasneh village in Hama suburbs were targeted using mortar shells loaded with a toxic gas on July 7 and August 4 of 2017.
In this latest report, the FFM, whose mandate includes responsibility for determining whether or not toxic chemicals have been used as a weapon of war in Syria but not assigning culpability in any alleged attacks involving the use of chemical weapons, outlined the findings of their investigations which went on from October 2017, up until the report’s release. The report concluded that the analysis of the information acquired, in line with the FFM’s mandate, “did not provide reasonable grounds for the FFM to determine that toxic chemicals were used as a weapon in the reported incidents that occurred in Kharbit Massasneh, in Hama Governorate in the Syrian Arab Republic, on 7 July 2017 and 4 August 2017.”
The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) believes that the findings of this report prove, yet again, that the Syrian regime has no shred of credibility, and has already lied dozens of times about the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Working closely with its allies Russia and Iran, the regime is conducting a systematic misinformation campaign to distort the already-established facts about its use of chemical weapons in Syria.