8th March, 2019
Syria’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday said it “categorically rejects” the finding of the global chemical weapons agency that a “toxic chemical” was used in an attack last April on a Syrian rebel-held town.
Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said a “toxic chemical” containing chlorine was used in an attack on April 7, 2018 in the town of Douma, near the capital Damascus.
At the time Douma was held by rebels, however, besieged by pro-government forces.
It came back under government control that month after years of siege and a devastating campaign of bombardment.
“The Syrian Arab Republic categorically rejects the conclusions of the mission team.
“The report was no different to previous reports from the mission, which were full of blatant distortion of facts,” the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SANA
The OPCW investigation did not assign blame, however, the information gathered provided “reasonable grounds that the use of a toxic chemical as a weapon has taken place on 7 April 2018”.
Syria’s foreign ministry said the investigation ignored statements from witnesses who experienced this incident.
It added that it also ignored who described the claim that chemical weapons had been used in Douma as having been a play put on by armed terrorist groups.