THE HAGUE, Netherlands: The global chemical weapons watchdog said Friday it found “reasonable grounds” that chlorine was used as a weapon in a deadly attack on the Syrian town of Douma last year.
The determination was contained in a detailed report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons’ fact finding mission that investigated the April 7, 2018 attack. Medical workers said at the time that the attack killed more than 40 people.
The mission’s mandate does not include laying blame.
In a statement, the OPCW said the mission visited Douma, analyzed samples taken from the scene and from people affected, interviewed witnesses and studied toxicological and ballistics analyzes.
The investigators were delayed by several days from reaching the scene by security concerns, leading to fears that evidence could degrade or be cleaned up.
However, the data they eventually amassed and studied provided “reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon” took place, the OPCW said.
“This toxic chemical contained reactive chlorine. The toxic chemical was likely molecular chlorine.”
Survivors reached by The Associated Press in the aftermath of the attack said they were overwhelmed by the smell of chlorine on the night of April 7. Activists said many of the dead were found with foam around their mouths, an indicator for suffocation. Medical workers said they treated symptoms including difficulty breathing and fainting.
The United States, Britain and France blamed Syrian government forces and launched punitive airstrikes. Syria denied responsibility.
Douma was the final target of the government’s sweeping campaign to seize back control of the eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus from rebels after seven years of revolt. Militants gave up the town days after the alleged attack.
The OPCW said the report has been sent to the United Nations Security Council.
Russia, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, rejected claims that Syria was responsible for the attack and even brought what it called witnesses to The Hague to describe their experiences.
In a tweet Friday, the Russian embassy in The Hague said the OPCW reached its finding, “in spite of all the evidence presented by Russia, Syria, and even British journalists that the Douma incident is no more than ‘White helmets’ staged provocation.”
A joint investigative mechanism between the United Nations and OPCW, set up in 2015, was responsible for apportioning blame, but it was disbanded after Russia vetoed an extension of its mandate at the UN Security Council. Moscow claimed the team was not professional or objective in its investigations.
The team accused Syria of using chlorine gas in at least two attacks in 2014 and 2015 and the nerve agent sarin in an aerial attack on Khan Sheikhoun in April 2017 that killed about 100 people and affected about 200 others. The latter attack led to a US airstrike on a Syrian airfield.
The team also accused the Islamic State extremist group of using mustard gas twice in 2015 and 2016.
Chemical weapons watchdog says chlorine was used in Douma
Chemical weapons watchdog says chlorine was used in Douma
- The findings confirmed an interim OPCW report released last July saying that traces of chlorine were found
- Russia, which backs Assad, rejected the report and said the attack was “staged” by Syrian rescue volunteers known as the White Helmets
Two killed in Gaza as aid convoy looted: WFP
Gazans face dire conditions after nearly 15 months of war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, with humanitarian agencies repeatedly warning not enough aid was reaching Palestinians in need due in part to looting as well as Israeli restrictions.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement that “a coordinated movement to bring in 40 trucks on behalf of humanitarian partners” on Sunday “was faced with violent, armed looting, resulting in the deaths of two.”
“Amidst the armed looting, five trucks of commodities were lost,” it added.
Hamas, the Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip, said in a statement that “a catastrophic mistake” by the WFP “claimed the lives of two citizens and injured dozens with bullets.”
“We hold it fully responsible and demand that it not violate the protocol followed regarding coordination to secure aid trucks,” the statement said.
The WFP said in its statement that for the past two weeks, “nearly every movement of aid through crossings in south and central Gaza has resulted in violence, looting and tragic deaths due to attacks and the absence of law and order along convoy routes inside Gaza.”
The organization said that it was still following “procedures of coordination set in place in previous months” and that it had “repeatedly warned of the dangers of movement in the absence of law and order” in the Palestinian territory.
For months, both Israel and aid agencies including the WFP have noted widespread looting by armed gangs, as well as civilians desperate for supplies.
Humanitarian agencies also say the delivery routes they take through Gaza are sometimes blocked by Israeli military activity.
Aid organizations have repeatedly warned of the deteriorating conditions in Gaza, saying civilians are starving and that aid shipments in recent months have been lower than at any time during the war.
East Africa’s IGAD envoy to visit Sudan
- Visit comes a year after the government in Sudan froze relations with the regional bloc and suspended its membership of the body
NAIROBI: The East African bloc bloc’s Intergovernmental Authority on Development envoy to Sudan said Monday he planned a visit to the war-torn country next month where he is trying to act as a mediator. It comes a year after the government in Sudan froze relations with the regional bloc and suspended its membership of the body.
Sudan has been mired in a brutal conflict since April last year, with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces under Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — commonly known as Hemeti — fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
IGAD had repeatedly attempted to mediate between the two warring generals, but to no avail.
In January, the bloc invited Dagalo to a summit in Uganda, prompting a furious response from the Foreign Ministry in the army-aligned government.
It accused IGAD of “violating Sudan’s sovereignty” and setting a “dangerous precedent,” saying it would suspend its membership of the bloc.
IGAD special envoy to Sudan Lawrence Korbandy confirmed on Monday that a visit to Port Sudan was planned in the new year. “I’m visiting them to talk to them about issues related to peace in that country,” he said from Nairobi, declining to give details over who he might meet.
Korbandy said the visit had been scheduled for December before being postponed to January. He labeled the suspension a “minor problem” — noting that Sudan was a founding member of the regional body — and said the proposed visit was “absolutely” a positive step.
“I’m looking for constructive dialogue regarding the peace in Sudan, and most importantly is the return of Sudan’s activities in IGAD,” he added.
“My mandate is to bring peace to the Sudanese people, and there is no other way, only to talk to all the parties in this conflict.”
More than half of Syrian children out of school: Save the Children to AFP
- Overwhelming majority of Syrian children also in need of immediate humanitarian assistance including food
DAMASCUS: About half of school-age children in Syria are missing out on education after nearly 14 years of civil war, Save the Children told AFP on Monday, calling for “immediate action.”
The overwhelming majority of Syrian children are also in need of immediate humanitarian assistance including food, the charity said, with at least half of them requiring psychological help to overcome war trauma.
“Around 3.7 million children are out of school and they require immediate action to reintegrate them in school,” Rasha Muhrez, the charity’s Syria director, told AFP in an interview from the capital Damascus, adding “this is more than half of the children at school age.”
While Syrians have endured more than a decade of conflict, the rapid rebel offensive that toppled president Bashar Assad on December 8 caused further disruption, with the UN reporting more than 700,000 people newly displaced.
“Some of the schools were used as shelters again due to the new wave of displaced people,” Muhrez told AFP.
The war, which began in 2011 after Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters, has devastated Syria’s economy and public infrastructure leaving many children vulnerable.
Muhrez said “about 7.5 million children are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.”
“We need to make sure the children can come back to education, to make sure that they have access again to health, to food and that they are protected,” Muhrez said.
“Children were deprived of their basic rights including access to education, to health care, to protection, to shelter,” by the civil war, but also natural disasters and economic crises, she said.
Syria’s war spiralled rapidly from 2011 into a major civil conflict that has killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.
More than one in four Syrians now live in extreme poverty according to the World Bank, with the deadly February 2023 earthquake bringing more misery.
Many children who grew up during the war have been traumatized by the violence, said Muhrez.
“This had a huge impact, a huge traumatic impact on them, for various reasons, for losses: a parent, a sibling, a friend, a house,” she said.
According to Save the Children, around 6.4 million children are in need of psychological help.
Muhrez also warned that “continued coercive measures and sanctions on Syria have the largest impact on the Syrian people themselves.”
Syria has been under strict Western sanctions aimed at Assad’s government, including from the United States and European Union, since early in the war.
On Sunday, Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa expressed hope that the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump would lift sanctions.
“It’s very difficult for us to continue responding to the needs and to reach people in need with limited resources with these restrictive measures,” she said.
Israel UN envoy warns Houthis risk sharing same fate as Hamas, Hezbollah
- Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians
NEW YORK: Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations issued on Monday what he called a final warning to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants to halt their missile attacks on Israel, saying they otherwise risked the same “miserable fate” as Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria’s Bashar Assad if they persisted.
He also warned Tehran that Israel has the ability to strike any target in the Middle East, including in Iran, adding that Israel would not tolerate attacks by Iranian proxies.
Houthis have repeatedly fired drones and missiles toward Israel in what they describe as acts of solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli fire in Gaza.
“To the Houthis, perhaps you have not been paying attention to what has happened to the Middle East over the past year. Well, allow me to remind you what has happened to Hamas, to Hezbollah, to Assad, to all those who have attempted to destroy us. Let this be your final warning. This is not a threat. It is a promise. You will share the same miserable fate,” Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon told the UN Security Council.
Speaking before the meeting, Danon told reporters: “Israel will defend its people. If 2,000 kilometers is not enough to separate our children from the terror, let me assure you, it will not be enough to protect their terror from our strengths.”
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Houthis that Israel was “just getting started” following Israeli strikes on multiple Houthi-linked targets in Yemen, including Sanaa airport, ports on the country’s west coast and two power plants.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he was about to board a plane at the airport when it came under attack by Israel. A crew member on the plane was injured, he said.
Israel’s elimination of the top leaders of the Palestinian Hamas and Lebanese Hezbollah and the destruction of their military structure along with Assad’s collapse represent a succession of monumental wins for Netanyahu.
Briefing the Security Council meeting, Assistant UN Secretary General for the Middle East Khaled Khiari reiterated grave concern about the escalation in violence, calling on the Houthis to halt attacks on Israel and for international and humanitarian law to be respected.
“Further military escalation could jeopardize regional stability with adverse political, security, economic and humanitarian repercussions,” Khiari said.
“Millions in Yemen, Israel and throughout the region, would continue to bear the brunt of escalation with no end.”
Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, while condemning Houthi missile attacks on Israel, also criticized Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Yemen, as well those by what he called the “Anglo-Saxon coalition” of US and British warships in the Red Sea, saying they were “clearly not proportional.”
Syria appoints Maysaa Sabrine as first woman to lead central bank, official says
- Sabrine has been a longtime central bank official mostly focused on oversight of the country’s banking sector
DAMASCUS: Syria’s new rulers have appointed Maysaa Sabrine, formerly a deputy governor of the Syrian central bank, to lead the institution as the first woman to do so in its more than 70-year history, a senior Syrian official said.
Sabrine, a longtime central bank official mostly focused on oversight of the country’s banking sector, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
She replaces Mohammed Issam Hazime who was appointed governor in 2021 by then-President Bashar Assad and remained on after Assad was ousted by a lightning militant offensive on Dec. 8.
Since the takeover, the bank has taken steps to liberalize an economy that was heavily controlled by the state, including by canceling the need for pre-approvals for imports and exports and tight controls on the use of foreign currency.
But Syria and the bank itself remain under strict US sanctions.
The bank has also taken stock of the country’s assets after Assad’s fall and a brief spate of looting that saw Syrian currency stolen but the main vaults left unbreached, Reuters reported.
The vault holds nearly 26 tons of gold, the same amount it had at the start of its civil war in 2011, sources told Reuters, but foreign currency reserves had dwindled from around $18 billion before the war to around $200 million, they said.
