{"id":237356,"date":"2026-01-14T10:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/237356\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T10:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T10:51:10","slug":"syrian-government-renews-commitment-to-destroy-chemical-weapons-programme-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/237356\/","title":{"rendered":"Syrian government renews commitment to destroy chemical weapons programme | News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"picture\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Warning sign in Syria in the aftermath of a chlorine attack\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/544884_gettyimages664860198_10887_crop.jpg\"  loading=\"eager\" class=\"lazyloaded\" width=\"3264\" height=\"2176\"\/><\/p>\n<p>UN officials have welcomed <a title=\"Syria signals renewed cooperation on chemical weapons destruction\" href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2026\/01\/1166724\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Syria\u2019s renewed commitment to eliminate the country\u2019s chemical weapons programme<\/a>\u00a0that was developed under the previous regime.<\/p>\n<p>Adedeji Ebo, the officer-in-charge of the UN\u2019s Office for Disarmament Affairs, told the security council earlier this month that \u2018the commitment of the new government in Syria to fully and transparently cooperate with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is both welcome and commendable\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Engagement between Syria and the OPCW started over 10 years ago after the <a href=\"https:\/\/snhr.org\/blog\/2019\/08\/21\/54157\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2013 sarin nerve gas attack<\/a> by the former Syrian regime on opposition held areas of Damascus, which killed hundreds of people. Syria signed the Chemical Weapons Convention treaty shortly after.<\/p>\n<p>However, there were concerns that large amounts of chemical weapons and munitions may not have been declared by the former Assad regime, which collapsed in December 2024.<\/p>\n<p>The latest report from Syria\u2019s new government revealed that, in addition to the 26 previously declared chemical weapons sites in Syria, more than 100 other sites may have been involved in the programme.<\/p>\n<p>OPCW teams have visited 19 locations since March, four of which were previously identified, with plans to visit all other locations, depending on site security. Collecting over 6000 documents, conducting interviews with former chemical weapons experts and reestablishing a continuous OPCW presence in Syria are other steps that the new government has also taken to gauge the extent of the chemical weapons programme.<\/p>\n<p>Ebo called for other council members \u2018to unite and show leadership in providing the support\u2019 needed to completely destroy Syria\u2019s chemical weapons programme.<\/p>\n<p>The UK has so far <a title=\"We welcome the Syrian leadership&#039;s commitment to eradicate chemical weapons: UK statement at the UN Security Council\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/speeches\/we-welcome-the-syrian-leaderships-commitment-to-eradicate-chemical-weapons-uk-statement-at-the-un-security-council\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">contributed over $3.8 million (\u00a32.8 million) <\/a> to OPCW missions in Syria since December 2024. \u2018This new Syrian government has provided hope that Assad-era chemical weapons will be verifiably identified and eliminated, once and for all,\u2019 said Caroline Quinn, the UK\u2019s deputy political coordinator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UN officials have welcomed Syria\u2019s renewed commitment to eliminate the country\u2019s chemical weapons programme\u00a0that was developed under the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-237356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}