Chemical Weapons Watchdog Weighs Syria Sanctions

The Hague, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Apr, 2021 ) :World powers urged the global chemical weapons watchdog on Tuesday to hit Syria with unprecedented sanctions for alleged toxic gas attacks and for failing to declare its arsenal.

Syria faces the loss of its "rights and privileges" at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) after a probe found it had carried out three attacks in 2017.

The regulator's 193 member states are expected to vote on Wednesday on a proposal by France, backed by 46 countries, that would include freezing Syria's voting rights at the Netherlands-based body.

Syria and its ally Russia dismissed the sanctions threat, accusing Western powers of using the Hague-based OPCW as a "propaganda tool" to undermine Damascus in its ten-year civil war.

"We cannot let this tragedy go on for another decade," French OPCW ambassador Luis Vassy told the watchdog.

"We find ourselves in an exceptional situation, which demands that we take action accordingly."It would be the first time a country had faced such punishment in the history of the OPCW, which was founded nearly a quarter of a century ago to rid the world of chemical weapons.