The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, announced on Wednesday that Washington agrees with the conclusions of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that the Syrian government has maintained sufficient capabilities to develop chemical weapons.
Pompeo considered the organization´s latest report as "new evidence in the large and growing body of evidence that the Assad regime is launching chemical weapons attacks."
In his statement Wednesday, Pompeo added that the Syrian government "maintains sufficient quantities of chemicals, especially sarin and chlorine, and has experiences from its traditional chemical weapons program for the use of sarin and chlorine ammunition and the development of new chemical weapons."
This came in response to a report of the investigation team of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, accusing the Syrian government forces of launching 3 attacks using toxic chemicals in Hama Governorate in March 2017.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, April 8, 2020, a high-ranking State Department official, who requested anonymity in response to a question from Jerusalem, said that the statement of the US Secretary and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons related to three attacks by the Syrian army on March 24, 25 and 30, 2017.
In his response to Jerusalem, the official added, "As part of a previous Security Council resolution, as well as the ongoing requirements for membership of the Chemical Weapons Convention, Syria is required to declare its stockpile and destroy it. There are ongoing efforts by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to facilitate the accountability process, so Syria, As a party to the agreement, they are required to do so, and they have been supported in both the Security Council and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and this is exactly the kind of work that will be done in The Hague as well as unilaterally to continue to pressure Syria to do so. "
The new investigation team of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons accused the Syrian army of launching three chemical attacks in the governorate of Hama in March 2017. The investigation and identification team (IIT) established in 2018, concluded in its first report published on Wednesday on the organization´s website, Until that two "Su-22" fighters belonging to the 50th brigade of the 22nd Air Force of the Syrian Air Force took off at the dawn of March 24 and 30, 2017 from Shuairat Military Airport to drop two M4000 bombs containing sarin gas south of the town of Latamna in the Hama countryside. The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered the report of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on the use of toxic substances in the town of Latamna in 2017 to be misleading, and included false and fabricated conclusions.
For its part, the Syrian Foreign Ministry responded by saying that the aim of the report was to falsify the facts and accuse the Syrian government.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry stressed that "the conclusions of this report represent another scandal for the organization and its investigation teams, in addition to the scandal of the Duma Incident Report 2018, and that all these fabricated allegations and false accusations will not dissuade Syria from pursuing its war on terrorism, its organizations and supporters within the framework of the legitimate defense of its sovereignty."
Damascus condemned in the strongest terms what was stated in the report of the illegal "investigation and identification team", and rejected what it said in terms of content and content, and categorically denied its use of toxic gases in the town of Latamna or in any other Syrian city or village.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry statement concluded, noting that the report relied on sources prepared and fabricated by the terrorists of Al-Nusra Front and the terrorist "White Helmets" group, in implementation of the instructions of their operators in the United States, Turkey and some well-known western countries.
