The US State Department has hailed a report issued earlier this month by the global chemical weapons agency on the use of chemical weapons in an attack last year in the Syrian town of Douma.
“The report concluded that there were reasonable grounds that chlorine was used as a chemical weapon in the attack. The FFM (an impartial outside investigator) found that the weaponized chlorine was not manufactured at the sites, as alleged by the regime, and that it is possible that the chlorine was released by cylinders that had been dropped from the air, as indicated by their condition and surroundings,” State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said in a statement.
"The conclusions in the FFM report support what the United States determined in our assessment of the attack last April – that the regime is responsible for this heinous chemical weapons attack that killed and injured civilians," it added.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said last week that the mission visited Douma, analyzed samples taken from the scene and from people affected, interviewed witnesses and studied toxicological and ballistics analyses.
The data, it said, provided "reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon" took place on April 7, 2018.
"This toxic chemical contained reactive chlorine. The toxic chemical was likely molecular chlorine."
The State Department said that “the Assad regime’s use of chlorine as a chemical weapon is a violation of its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which it is a party, as well as UNSCR 2118.”
“Further, the United States rejects the efforts of the Assad regime and its supporters – Russia chief among them – to sow disinformation about alleged chemical weapons attacks,” the statement read.
The US expressed deep concern about such disinformation. "As noted in our own assessment in April 2018, after the CW attack in Douma, the regime falsely accused opposition groups of perpetrating the chemical weapons attack in Douma; and regime and Russia forces delayed inspectors from entering Douma in an expedited manner with appropriate access consistent with their mandate.”
“Unfortunately, this is just the latest case where chemical weapons use in Syria has been confirmed by the FFM,” the statement added.
The US called upon “the Assad regime to fully cooperate with the OPCW, verifiably destroy its remaining chemical weapons program and completely disclose its activities related to chemical weapons.”
“These are all obligations Syria accepted when it became a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013, but has failed to honor,” it said.
