New York, March 11 (SANA) The United Nations welcomed Syria’s continued cooperation with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) as efforts continue to address outstanding issues related to the deposed regime chemical weapons program.
Speaking during a UN Security Council session on Tuesday, Adedeji Ebo, deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, said the OPCW Technical Secretariat has been unable to fully verify Syria’s chemical weapons declaration submitted by the former government since 2014.
Ebo said the current Syrian government is cooperating with OPCW in efforts aimed at resolving gaps in the earlier declaration regarding the defunct regime’s chemical weapons activities.
According to Ebo, Syrian authorities have sealed 34 boxes of scanned and documented material related to the investigation. Since March 2025, OPCW inspectors have visited more than 20 sites linked to the former chemical weapons program.
Inspectors have also conducted interviews with former experts, collected 19 samples, and reviewed over 6,000 documents as part of the ongoing verification process.
However, site visits have been temporarily suspended due to the ongoing regional conflict. OPCW teams are continuing to interview personnel and analyze documents until conditions allow field operations to resume.
Ebo stressed that Syria will only be fully cleared of chemical weapons concerns if the international community maintains strong and sustained support for the verification process.
Syria’s representative to the United Nations, Ibrahim Olabi, said the country views the removal of any remaining traces of the deposed regime’s chemical weapons program as both a legal obligation and a humanitarian responsibility.
R.A
