In an unprecedented move, member states of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voted today to revoke Syria’s rights in the organization after an investigation revealed that the Syrian authorities had carried out a poison gas attack.
A proposal to suspend Syria’s rights, backed by France, the United Kingdom and the United States, was approved by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) with the required 2/3 majority vote.
“Based on the results of the vote, the General Conference adopted the draft resolution,” said Jose Antonio Zabalgoitia Trejo, president of the OPCW, which convened its general assembly of member states at its headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands.
OPCW officials said 136 of the 193 member states of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) voted, with 87 of them endorsing the proposal, 15 of them opposing it, including Syria, Russia, China and Iran, and 34 others abstaining.
The proposal was adopted in response to the OPCW’s finding last year that the Syrian Air Force had used sarin nerve gas and toxic chlorine gas in three attacks on the village of Latamenah in 2017.
Syria’s revoked rights include the right to vote at the Annual General Meeting and OPCW Executive Council, to stand for election to the Executive Council, or to hold positions in OPCW.
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