Washington Accuses Damascus of Retaining Hidden Chemical Weapons Stockpile

This Friday May 5, 2017 file photo shows the headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), The Hague, Netherlands. (AP)
This Friday May 5, 2017 file photo shows the headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), The Hague, Netherlands. (AP)
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Washington Accuses Damascus of Retaining Hidden Chemical Weapons Stockpile

This Friday May 5, 2017 file photo shows the headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), The Hague, Netherlands. (AP)
This Friday May 5, 2017 file photo shows the headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), The Hague, Netherlands. (AP)

The United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs called on Syrian authorities to again provide clarifications over 20 significant areas to completely resolve its chemical weapons file in line with Security Council Resolution 2118.

Syria must change its attitude and cooperate fully with the body charged with verifying its compliance with international law governing chemical weapons, Izumi Nakamitsu told the Security Council on Thursday.

“Syria continues to place conditions on the deployment of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Declaration Assessment Team,” she charged.

In light of this, the OPCW Technical Secretariat has proposed — subject to a change in attitude by Syria — that the shortcomings in Syria’s initial declaration under the Chemical Weapons Convention be addressed through an exchange of correspondence.

Nakamitsu noted, however, that such exchanges demonstrably yield fewer results when compared to the Team’s deployment, read a UN statement.

She went on to say that the Technical Secretariat, to assist Syria in resolving the 20 outstanding issues with its initial declaration, has provided that country with a list of information requested by the Team since 2019.

Noting that the Technical Secretariat has yet to receive requested information regarding the unauthorized movement of two cylinders related to the chemical-weapon incident that occurred in Douma in 2018, she stressed that Syria must urgently respond to these requests.

Syria’s full cooperation is essential to closing all outstanding issues, and the Technical Secretariat remains fully committed to ensure Syria fully implements its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

In this regard, Nakamitsu reiterated her full support for the integrity, professionalism, impartiality, objectivity and independence of OPCW’s work.

She also noted that the Technical Secretariat is currently planning to inspect the Scientific Studies and Research Center in Damascus in 2022, pointing out that Syria has yet to provide sufficient information regarding the detection of a certain toxic chemical at these facilities in November 2018.

For their part, the OPCW’s Fact-Finding Mission and Investigation and Identification Team continue their work relating to the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and the latter body will issue further reports in due course.

Recalling that the Convention’s preamble calls on the international community “to exclude completely the possibility of the use of chemical weapons”, she reiterated her call for unity within the Council towards this end.

In the ensuing discussion, many Council members called on Syria to cease its continued obstruction of OPCW’s work, highlighting Damascus’ ongoing refusal to provide information relating to its initial declaration and to provide a visa to a member of the OPCW Declaration Assessment Team, said the UN statement.

Russia’s representative, Dmitry Polyanskiy said Moscow has repeatedly noted that the Syrian chemical-weapons issue is going around in circles, and OPCW’s reports repeatedly publish “generic selections of unfounded accusations regarding Syria”.

They do not account for progress made by Damascus and have one aim: to create the impression that dialogue between OPCW and Syria is faltering due to the latter’s failure to cooperate, read the UN statement.

However, numerous questions posed to the OPCW’s Technical Secretariat remain unanswered, and OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias has not found time to brief the Council. He also has not visited Syria since his appointment to the position, which begs comparison to the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who visits facilities and speaks to the Council when called to do so.

The leaders of OPCW — not Syria — must change their attitude, Polyanskiy demanded, adding that there is no point in discussing the Syrian chemical-weapons issue every month; rather, it should be discussed every quarter in an open meeting.

US representative Richard Mills, meanwhile, condemned the Damascus regime’s “continued refusal to provide answers or information requested years ago by the declaration assessment team is an affront to Council and the OPCW.”

“The fact is that Syria has not declared its entire chemical weapons program and it retains a hidden stockpile of chemical weapons,” he underscored.

The risk remains that the Assad regime will again use chemical weapons against its own people, he warned.

Syria’s representative Bassam Dabbagh stressed that his country “has been keen to fully cooperate with OPCW, even before its entry into force for Syria.”

He rejected “all baseless accusations by some countries, foremost the United States, which is supporting terrorist groups that use chemicals weapons in Syria.”

He said his country submitted to the Director-General its monthly report on September 15, which included its activities related to the destruction of chemical weapons and its production facilities.



Hamas Says Ready to Free All Hostages at Once in Gaza Truce Phase Two

The sun sets behind heavily damaged residential buildings in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on February 17, 2025, as people return to northern parts of Gaza during a current ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
The sun sets behind heavily damaged residential buildings in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on February 17, 2025, as people return to northern parts of Gaza during a current ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Hamas Says Ready to Free All Hostages at Once in Gaza Truce Phase Two

The sun sets behind heavily damaged residential buildings in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on February 17, 2025, as people return to northern parts of Gaza during a current ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
The sun sets behind heavily damaged residential buildings in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on February 17, 2025, as people return to northern parts of Gaza during a current ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Hamas signaled on Wednesday that it was willing to free all remaining hostages held in Gaza in a single swap during the next phase of an ongoing ceasefire.  

Israel and Hamas are currently in the process of implementing phase one of the fragile truce, which has held since taking effect on January 19 despite accusations of violations on both sides.  

Israel's foreign minister said on Tuesday that talks would begin "this week" on the second phase, which is expected to lay out a more permanent end to the war.

"We have informed the mediators that Hamas is ready to release all hostages in one batch during the second phase of the agreement, rather than in stages as in the current first phase," senior Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told AFP.

He did not clarify how many hostages were currently being held by Hamas or other armed groups.  

Nunu said this step was meant "to confirm our seriousness and complete readiness to move forward in resolving this issue, as well as to continue steps towards cementing the ceasefire and achieving a sustainable truce".  

Under the ceasefire's first phase, 19 Israeli hostages have been released so far in exchange for more than 1,100 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails in a series of Red Cross-mediated swaps.  

Wednesday's offer came after Israel and Hamas announced a deal for the return of all six remaining living hostages eligible for release under phase one in a single swap this weekend.  

Hamas also agreed on Tuesday to return the bodies of eight dead hostages in two groups this week and next.  

After the completion of the first phase, 58 hostages will remain in Gaza.  

The armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad said on Wednesday that it would release the body of Israeli hostage Oded Lifshitz on Thursday. The group said Lifshitz was one of the hostages killed during Israeli strikes on Gaza.  

- 'Room to pressure Hamas' -  

Muhammad Shehada, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that after more than a year of devastating Israeli assault in Gaza, "Hamas wants to prevent the war resuming at any cost", albeit with some "red lines".  

"And one of those red lines is that they should continue to exist, basically, whereas (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu's position is that they should dismantle themselves," he said.  

Since the start of the war, Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas's capacity to fight or govern, something the group has rejected.  

But the appearance that Washington is now in complete alignment with Netanyahu's government, as displayed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's visit this week, strengthened the Israeli premier's hand in negotiations, according to Michael Horowitz, an expert at the risk management consultancy Le Beck International.  

It gives Netanyahu "more room to pressure Hamas", Horowitz said, adding that US President Donald Trump "prefers that the agreement moves forward, but he's leaving the field open to Netanyahu... as long as the ceasefire is maintained".  

- 'Held onto hope' -

Among the bodies Hamas said it would hand over on Thursday are those of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Kfir and Ariel, who have become national symbols in Israel of the hostages' ordeal.  

The boys' father Yarden Bibas was taken hostage separately on October 7, 2023, and was released alive during an earlier hostage-prisoner swap.  

While Hamas said Shiri Bibas and her boys were killed in an Israeli air strike early in the war, Israel has never confirmed this, and many supporters remain unconvinced of their deaths, including members of the Bibas family.  

"I ask that no one eulogize my family just yet. We have held onto hope for 16 months, and we are not giving up now," the boys' aunt, Ofri Bibas, wrote on Facebook late Tuesday following Hamas's announcement.  

Israeli authorities have confirmed that the remains of four hostages are due to be returned on Thursday, although they have not officially named them.  

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has acted as go-between in the exchanges, called for a respectful handover of the hostages' remains.  

"We once again call for all releases to be conducted in a private and dignified manner, including when they tragically involve the deceased," it said.  

Hamas and its allies took 251 people hostage during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, of whom 70 remain in Gaza, including 35 the Israeli military says are dead.  

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,211 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.  

Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 48,297 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory that the United Nations considers reliable.  

Since the war began, Israeli forces have detained hundreds of Gazans, some of whom have been released in previous rounds of hostage-prisoner exchanges.