DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said he would take part in a meeting of the international chemical weapons watchdog in the Netherlands, nearly three months after Bashar al-Assad’s ouster.
“Today, for the first time in Syria’s history, I am attending the executive council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague,” Shaibani said in a statement on X. “This participation reaffirms Syria’s commitment to international security and honours those who lost their lives suffocating at the hands of the Assad regime,” he added.
Assad was repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons during Syria’s 13-year civil war, and there has been widespread concern about the fate of Syria’s stockpile since his December 8 ouster.
