{"id":604844,"date":"2026-09-03T20:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T20:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/604844\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T20:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T20:00:13","slug":"syria-begins-destroying-al-assad-era-chemical-weapons-materials-weapons-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/604844\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria begins destroying al-Assad-era chemical weapons materials | Weapons News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Syrian authorities undertake \u2060first such destruction in over a decade as former government officials face trial.<\/p>\n

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Published On 3 Sep 20263 Sep 2026<\/p>\n

Syria has begun \u200cdestroying the remnants of a clandestine chemical weapons programme created under former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Syrian and United Nations officials have said.<\/p>\n

This includes raw materials and munitions similar to those used in deadly gas attacks<\/a> during the country\u2019s civil war, diplomats said at the United Nations Security Council on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi \u2060Nakamitsu told a UN Security Council briefing that for the first time since 2014, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had verified the destruction of chemical munitions in Syria.<\/p>\n

Syria\u2019s new leadership had located \u2060remnants of al-Assad\u2019s chemical weapons programme in May. Following the finding, Syria had \u200cfound \u201cone additional chemical weapons production facility, a newly discovered chemical used in the production of nerve agents, and empty chemical munitions\u201d, Nakamitsu said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also declared two chemical weapons storage facilities where the newly discovered facilities were being stored,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Last month, the OPCW deployed a team to Syria to verify the destruction of \u201ccategory-three\u201d chemical weapons, defined as unfilled munitions and other equipment used to release chemical weapons. Nakamitsu \u2060said the team verified \u201cthe irreversible destruction of 42 aerial bombs\u201d \u2060as part of that mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the very first destruction process since we have been liberated from the previous regime,\u201d Syria\u2019s UN envoy Ibrahim Olabi also told the briefing. \u201cIt\u2019s also the first of its kind to destroy chemical materials on Syrian territory for over a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olabi told the council that Syria was \u201cprotecting the world and the region through such work\u201d. However, he added that repeated Israeli attacks<\/a> had \u2060impeded some search-and-destruction operations and exposed the Syrian teams at work to risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot safeguard the security of \u2060the region if our security is exposed to attacks \u2060at the hands of Israel, and they are flouting the security of the region at large and they are breaching the conventions and treaties we have talked about,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Syrian authorities earlier this year took 18 suspects into custody for alleged involvement in al-Assad\u2019s chemical weapons programme, including high-level military, political and technical officials.<\/p>\n

Olabi said Syria was preparing to hold the first court hearing of people suspected of involvement \u200cin \u200cthe chemical weapons programme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Syrian authorities undertake \u2060first such destruction in over a decade as former government officials face trial. Published On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1153,42,47,43,4713,20766,40,38,41,39,4497,3803],"class_list":["post-604844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-conflict","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-syria","tag-syrias-war","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-nations","tag-weapons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604844","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=604844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}