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International Support Key to Fully Eliminate Syria's Chemical Weapons, Disarmament Chief Tells Security Council, Welcoming Interim Authorities' Commitment

Press Release
Security Council

9930th Meeting (PM)

SC/16080
5 June 2025

Welcoming the Syrian interim authorities' continued engagement to address chemical-weapons issues long left unresolved by that country's previous Administration, the United Nations' disarmament chief told the Security Council today that international support is needed to fully realize the elimination of Syria's chemical-weapons programme.

"We have continued to observe a new political reality emerge in Syria," said Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. There exists an "important opportunity", she emphasized, to obtain "long-overdue" clarifications on the full extent of the Syrian chemical-weapons programme, rid the country of all such weapons, normalize relations between Syria and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and ensure long-term compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention. She recalled that, over the last 11 years, OPCW has reported a total of 26 outstanding issues in this regard, of which 19 remain unresolved.

Welcoming the interim authorities' continued engagement with OPCW to address such issues, she reported that OPCW technical experts travelled to Syria from 12 to 21 March "to start work on establishing OPCW's permanent physical presence in Syria and start jointly planning deployments to chemical-weapons sites". Further, a second deployment was completed from 14 to 25 April, and OPCW is currently preparing a third. These visits aim to establish an OPCW mission in Syria, conduct site visits and interview personnel with knowledge of the Syrian chemical-weapons programme.

She went on to note that the interim authorities "extended all necessary support for the OPCW team's activities" during both completed deployments. "This included unfettered access, inter alia, to sites and people, issuance of visas and security escorts for field activities," she said. There were also discussions on requirements for the safe conduct of future OPCW activities in Syria, as well as the planning of necessary steps to facilitate the same. The OPCW technical secretariat, she stressed, remains committed to delivering on its mandate to verify Syria's full implementation of all Convention requirements, OPCW decisions and Council resolutions.

"The commitment of the new authorities in Syria to fully and transparently cooperate with the OPCW technical secretariat is commendable," she said, adding: "However, the work ahead will not be easy, and it will require support from the international community." OPCW requires additional support to accomplish the tasks needed to rid Syria of all chemical weapons and carry out other mandated activities, including capacity-building to enable national authorities to respond to and investigate chemical-weapons issues and incidents effectively. She concluded: "I, once again, urge the members of this Council to unite and show leadership in providing the support that this unprecedented effort will require."

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