Israel's attacks on Damascus hinder chemical weapons search, Syrian official says
A planned visit by inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has already had to be postponed, adviser Ibrahim Olabi said.
The OPCW will hold an urgent meeting on Tuesday next week to discuss the situation and impact of the Israeli attacks, Olabi, who is the legal adviser to Syria's Foreign Ministry tasked with the chemical weapons file, said.
The OPCW did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Israel launched powerful airstrikes on Damascus on Wednesday, blowing up part of the defence ministry and hitting near the presidential palace, taking action it said was to protect the Druze minority in southern Syria.
The Syrian defence ministry provided the institutional infrastructure needed to organise and secure visits from OPCW inspectors, Olabi said.
Since March there have been several visits by inspectors to previously unseen production and storage locations for chemical weapons to prepare for the task of destroying remnants of Assad's illegal stockpile. Syria's interim-government has vowed to rid itself of chemical weapons.
The OPCW, a treaty-based agency in The Hague with 193 member countries, is tasked with implementing the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention.
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Los Angeles Times
4 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
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SWEIDA, Syria — The first video opens with Hosam Saraya, a 35-year-old Syrian American and seven other members of his family, walking in a procession down a street, their hands placed on the shoulders of the person in front of them, escorted by gunmen wearing fatigues and waving assault rifles. One of the gunmen says, 'We gave you safe passage,' while others shout religious slogans. Another video shot on July 16 cuts to Saraya and his relatives kneeling in the middle of a roundabout. One of the gunmen speaks to a family member, his voice becoming more menacing as his anger mounts. Then the shooting starts, and Saraya and the others collapse to the ground. Saraya, a member of the Druze religious minority, was living in Oklahoma but had returned to the family home in the Druze-majority city of Sweida to take care of his ill father, relatives said. 'His father improved, and Hosam was supposed to come back to Oklahoma in a month. 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Yahoo
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