The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on Thursday reinstated Syria's voting rights at the global chemical weapons watchdog, five years after it was stripped of such rights under ousted President Bashar Assad.
In a statement on its website, the watchdog cited a "significant change in circumstances" since the fall of the Assad regime as its reason for the reinstatement.OPCW hails progress in disclosing chemical stockpile
The OPCW executive council adopted the decision in its Thursday session, co-sponsored by 67 states parties and adopted by consensus.
"Following the fall of the Assad regime, the new Syrian authorities committed to fulfilling Syria's obligations under the Convention and have since taken concrete steps to cooperate with the Technical Secretariat to achieve this goal," the OPCW statement read.Can Assad be charged with war crimes?To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
The executive council welcomed the progress made by Damascus in addressing outstanding issues related to its chemical weapons program. This recent progress includes:
