Syria’s current government under Ahmed al-Sharaa has indicated a renewed willingness to cooperate with international efforts aimed at dismantling the country’s chemical weapons programme. The United Nations has described this as a critical opportunity to address long-standing gaps in verification.
Briefing the Security Council, Adedeji Ebo, officer-in-charge of the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, said Damascus is now working with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW, to clarify the full scope of chemical weapons-related activities carried out under the previous government. He said this cooperation is intended to bring Syria into compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention. Ebo noted that since 2014 the OPCW has been unable to confirm the accuracy and completeness of Syria’s original declaration, citing concerns over potentially undeclared chemical agents and munitions. According to the latest assessment, beyond 26 declared sites, more than 100 additional locations may have been linked to chemical weapons activity.
Inspection teams have so far visited 19 sites, collected samples and thousands of documents, and further deployments are being planned, including in coastal and northern areas near Latakia. Highlighting the re-establishment of a continuous OPCW presence in Syria, Ebo said sustained international support would be essential, adding that this is a critical opportunity to secure long-overdue clarifications and eliminate all remaining chemical weapons.
The OPCW, or Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, is an international body based in The Hague that oversees implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, the global treaty banning the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. It verifies that member states destroy existing chemical arsenals and investigates allegations of chemical weapons use.
