International demands to hold the Assad regime accountable after the first formal accusation of using chemical weapons

The European Union, Turkey and the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, have called for those responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria to be held accountable, while the regime has condemned the first accusation by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The European Union welcomed, in a statement, the report of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons issued yesterday, Wednesday, and the Union strongly condemned the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Air Force, saying that their use is a violation of international law and can amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The statement stressed the need not to tolerate impunity for these "terrible acts", calling on the international community to take appropriate measures, and stressing that accountability is necessary to prevent the re-use of chemical weapons.

The European Union recalled the restrictive measures it had imposed on high-ranking Syrian officials and scientists for their role in the development and use of chemical weapons, and said it was ready to consider imposing further sanctions as appropriate.

In the same context, Stefan Dujarric, a spokesman for Guterres, held a press conference, saying that the Secretary-General took note of the report of the organization, and his position has not changed, calling for the necessity of holding all those involved in the use of these weapons against civilians accountable.

When asked whether the Secretary-General should explicitly condemn the regime forces, Dujarric said, "Anyone anywhere who used these weapons should be condemned."

In this context, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed the need to hold the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria accountable, which has killed citizens without discrimination of children for nine years.

This came in a statement issued by the Turkish Foreign Ministry on the report of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which accused the air force of the Assad regime, of carrying out prohibited chemical attacks on the town of Latamna, Hama Governorate, in central Syria, in March 2017.

The Turkish statement mentioned the report's confirmation that the Syrian Air Force carried out three chemical weapons attacks targeting the town of Latamna on 24, 25 and 30 March 2017. He considered that the first report of the organization's investigation team is an important step taken in ensuring that the perpetrators of the chemical weapons attacks in Syria are held accountable.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry statement stressed that the use of chemical weapons is a flagrant violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, as well as a crime against humanity and a war crime.

And US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday that the OPCW report is the latest addition to a "large and growing body of evidence" that the Syrian regime is using chemical weapons against its own people.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also said that "such a flagrant violation of international law must not go unpunished."

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On the other hand, the regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates issued a statement in which it considered that the organization’s report “is misleading and contains false and fabricated conclusions, aimed at falsifying facts and accusing the Syrian government.”

The statement denied that the regime used toxic gases in the town of Latamna or in any other Syrian city or village.

The coordinator of the investigation team of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Santiago Onati Laborde, said in a statement yesterday that his team "concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that users of sarin as a chemical weapon in Latamna (Hama Governorate) on March 24 and 30, 2017 and chlorine (...) on March 25 March 2017 are people belonging to the Syrian Air Force. "

The organization had confirmed in 2018 that the sarin and chlorine gases were used in the Latamna attacks without accusing any party, but the report issued yesterday is the first in which the organization holds a certain entity responsible for attacks being investigated in Syria.

A report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is expected to be released in the coming months on a chlorine gas attack targeting the city of Douma near Damascus in April 2018.