The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said its fact-finding mission concluded that “there are no reasonable grounds to determine that chemicals were used as a weapon” in two incidents in July and August 2017 in Massasneh, a town in the province of Hama, in the center of the country.
Syria called for an OPCW investigation after denouncing a “poison gas and mortar attack” on its army in the town during fighting against rebels.
The agency sent a team to Syria three times to investigate and interview witnesses, but found no evidence of a gas attack, according to the mission report. The group published 20 reports about the 73 cases of alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria, and determined that such weapons were used or could have been used in 20 incidents. The mission is not obliged to point out who is responsible for the attacks.
Another OPCW investigative team trying to identify the forces responsible for the use of chemical weapons has found evidence pointing to the repeated use of chemical weapons by Syria in the country’s long-running civil war. The Hague-based OPCW states suspended Damascus from voting in the organization in 2021 because of the attacks.
Syria, which joined the organization in 2013 after threats that it would suffer airstrikes in response to a chemical attack on the outskirts of the capital, has denied using chemical weapons.
