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DISINFO: OPCW is an American tool in a geopolitical game

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

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West Chemical weapons/attack Syrian War OPCW Terrorism

DISINFO: OPCW is an American tool in a geopolitical game

SUMMARY

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has become a tool in a geopolitical game led by the US and its Western allies.

Syria has fulfilled its obligations arising from its accession to the embargo agreement in 2013 and disposed of its stockpile of those weapons and destroyed its production facilities in record time.

RESPONSE

Recurrent disinformation message about Chemical Weapons in the Syrian conflict and attempting to discredit the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and absolving the Syrian regime of responsibility for chemical attacks.

Portrayal of the OPCW as a pawn in Western geopolitical designs started around mid-2018, when the organisation was being granted new powers to assign blame for chemical attacks, especially in the Syrian Douma.

18 countries issued a joint statement, which called for an end to the unacceptable defamation of the OPCW. Russia is a member of the OPCW.

An investigation mechanism set up by the OPCW has twice blamed Syrian government forces for chemical attacks. On 12 April 2021, it said it found “reasonable grounds to believe” that a Syrian air force military helicopter dropped a chlorine cylinder on a Syrian town in 2018, causing12 people to become ill.

On 8 April 2020, the team found reasonable grounds to believe that the Syrian Arab Air Force was responsible for attacks using chlorine and the nerve agent sarin in March 2017 in the town of Latamneh.

Regarding the chemical weapons that Syria possess, the OPCW inspectors could only authenticate that the declared chemical weapons had been destroyed in 2014, even though there were suspicions in the West that Syria had hidden as much as 10% of its stockpile.

The OPCW 85th report mentioned in the claim, clearly pointing out that Damascus “has yet to provide sufficient technical information or explanations [with regard to the finding of a Schedule 2.B.04 chemical] that would enable the Secretariat to close this issue”.

See similar cases in our database claiming that the chemical attacks in Syria have been staged and filmed by Western media; or that the White Helmets have falsified chemical attacks evidence; or that the OPCW’s IIT is an illegal Western tool; or that the West is using OPCW to throw baseless accusations at Syria.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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