Chemical weapons watchdog to send team to Syria's Douma

Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says Assad regime has been told to make necessary arrangements

By Abdullah Asiran

THE HAGUE (AA) - The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on Tuesday said it will deploy a fact-finding mission team to investigate the suspected chemical gas attack in Syria’s Douma region.

“Since the first reports of alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma, Syrian Arab Republic, were issued, the OPCW has been gathering information from all available sources and analysing it,” it said in a statement.

“At the same time, OPCW’s Director-General, Ambassador Ahmet Uzumcu, has considered the deployment of a FFM [fact-finding mission] team to Douma to establish facts surrounding these allegations.

“Today, the OPCW Technical Secretariat has requested the Syrian Arab Republic to make the necessary arrangements for such a deployment. This has coincided with a request from the Syrian Arab Republic and the Russian Federation to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma”.

“The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly,” the statement added.

Bashar al-Assad regime forces struck targets in the Damascus suburb’s Douma district on Saturday midnight allegedly using a poisonous gas, which left at least 78 civilians dead, according to the White Helmets, a local civil defense agency.

Kaynak:

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