Damascus 'Rejects' Watchdog Vote Curbing Chemical Exports to Syria

General photo of Syria's Bab al-Salam crossing  (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
General photo of Syria's Bab al-Salam crossing (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
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Damascus 'Rejects' Watchdog Vote Curbing Chemical Exports to Syria

General photo of Syria's Bab al-Salam crossing  (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
General photo of Syria's Bab al-Salam crossing (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)

Syria's foreign ministry on Sunday lambasted a decision by the world's chemical weapons watchdog to limit chemical exports to the war-torn country.

"Syria rejects the resolution that was adopted" at the annual meeting Thursday of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a ministry statement said.

It slammed Western nations that put forward the resolution, saying the vote "reflects Western hatred towards developing countries".

On Thursday, a majority of OPCW member countries voted for "collective measures" to stop the transfer of certain chemicals and chemical-making technology to Syria.

It cited Syria's "continued possession and use of chemical weapons" and "its failures to submit an accurate and complete declaration and to destroy all its undeclared chemical weapons and production facilities".

Syria agreed in 2013 to join the world's chemicals watchdog following after an alleged chemical gas attack killed more than 1,400 people near Damascus.

But the OPCW, based in The Hague, has since accused the Damascus of carrying out a series of chemical attacks during the civil war.

The Syrian government has denied the allegations.

Syria's OPCW voting rights were suspended in 2021, an unprecedented rebuke, following poison gas attacks on civilians in 2017.

Damascus has also denied the accusations.

The Syrian civil war broke out in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests, escalating into a deadly armed conflict involving foreign powers and global jihadist groups.

The war has killed more than half a million people and displaced half of the country's pre-war population.



Israel Fired at Vehicles Belonging to Syria's New Military, Killing 3

An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
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Israel Fired at Vehicles Belonging to Syria's New Military, Killing 3

An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI
An Israeli soldier mans a machine gun atop a military vehicle as they leave the buffer zone on the border between Israel and Syria, near the Druze village of Majdal Shams, in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, 20 December 2024. EPA/ATEF SAFADI

The Israeli army said it fired at vehicles in Syria loaded with weapons near a buffer zone established under a 1974 agreement between Syria and Israel.
The strike in the town of Ghadir al-Bustan in Quneitra province killed three people, including two members of Syria's Military Operations Administration, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Military Operations Administration is run Syria’s de facto leadership under Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which did not comment on the attack. The attack coincided with Syrian security operations to search homes for weapons, according to the war monitor.
The Israeli military said they located vehicles carrying weapons and “fired a warning shot adjacent to the vehicles, and the vehicles drove away from the area.” Asked about casualties, the Israeli military said it had no information, reported The Associated Press.
Israeli forces captured the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights following former Syrian President Bashar Assad’s fall last month. The military has been also conducting incursions outside the buffer zone, prompting local protests.