The accusations came in speeches delivered during a closed-door Security Council videoconference, and later made public despite confidentiality rules. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons released a report April 8 blaming the Syrian military for chemical weapons attacks on the village of Lataminah in northern Syria in 2017. "By using these terrible weapons, by retaining a chemical weapons capability inconsistent with both its initial declaration and its alleged full destruction of its chemical weapons program in 2014, and by failing to comply fully with the OPCW, Syria remains in breach of its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Security Council decisions set out in Resolution 2118," he said. Estonian Ambassador Sven Jurgenson stressed that the use of chemical weapons "cannot be tolerated." "Syria's chemical weapons (CW) program has been shut down, all its CW stockpiles have been eliminated and production capacities destroyed," Nebenzia said, adding that Damascus was cooperating with the OPCW.

Source: Dhaka Tribune April 16, 2020 10:41 UTC