OPCW insiders slam ‘hyper-politicized’ report on Syria chemical attack

Current and former staff members of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have decried the organization’s new report that accused the Syrian government of being behind suspected chemical attacks in Hama in 2017.

According to Press TV, in an 82-page report on April 8, the OPCW’s Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) claimed that "there are reasonable grounds to believe” the Syrian army committed the alleged chemical attacks on the militant-held town of Lataminah in Hama Province during the last week of March 2017.

It alleged that in a span of one week, Syrian fighter jets had twice dropped bombs containing sarin nerve agent on the town and a helicopter had targeted its hospital with a cylinder containing chlorine, affecting scores of people.

OPCW insiders criticized the report as “another hyper-politicized piece of bunk”, saying the organization has been misused “by influential state parties to further their political and foreign affairs objectives.”

“It was very clear to us during the creation and setup of the IIT that its intent was not to investigate alleged incidents of chemical attacks in Syria. Instead, the team was created simply to find the Syrian government guilty of chemical attacks. Its credibility was therefore compromised from its inception,” the insiders said.

The Grayzone news website quoted the most obvious and detrimental flaws in the “scientifically flawed” IIT report that were highlighted by the insiders.

The insiders questioned the motive the Syrian leadership would have to use chemical weapons that would risk Western intervention at a time when the government was advancing against the foreign-backed militants.

“Then let’s say they took this wild risk by using sarin… They did this by supposedly dropping a couple of sarin bombs on fields; agricultural lands in the middle of nowhere. Really?” it said. 

The insiders noted that no so-called “fact-finder or investigator” was deployed to the site of the alleged attacks.

ME