According to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Syrian government has refused to admit a team of investigators who were meant to identify specific culprits in past alleged chemical weapons attacks.
There was a previous joint investigations team that already investigated
those incidents, and issued conclusions. That team’s mandate ended in
November 2017, and over objections by Syria and Russia, this new team
was formed to try to pin the attacks on somebody.
The previous team concluded Syrian forces had used banned agents in some
attacks, and blamed ISIS for a mustard gas attack. Syrian officials said they considered the matter done with that team, and didn’t want to give the new team access to all sorts of secret documents just to keep the investigation open.
Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister has twice issued warnings about their
opposition to the team in May, and made it clear once again this week
that they don’t intend to issue any travel documents to the new team.
I’m hardly surprised that the Syrian government doesn’t want the heavily politicized and biased OPCW investigators/report writers anywhere near it. Until the OPCW fully explains why it ignored the “Ian Henderson report” and what its evidence was and who provided that evidence for the report on the alleged Douma incident, the Syrians should continue to ignore the OPCW as should the rest of the world. If any of the sources for the OPCW report are not prepared to make their involvement known then under the “rule of law” and natural justice their evidence should be discarded.
The OPCW is no longer fit for duty, as it cannot be trusted to act in a non biased way.
If they lied before why won’t they lie again ?