Published on
09/07/2026 - 19:41 GMT+2
The world's chemical weapons watchdog reinstated Syria on Thursday, noting a "significant change in circumstances" since the fall of Bashar al-Assad and "concrete steps" to dismantle his deadly stockpile of banned substances.
In 2021, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) took the unprecedented step of stripping Syria of its voting rights after finding its air force had used nerve agent sarin and chlorine gas on its own people.
But since al-Assad's 2024 overthrow, the new authorities in Damascus have vowed to co-operate with the OPCW to destroy the chemical weapons the former president was repeatedly accused of using during Syria's 13-year civil war.
