Qatar condemns Israeli violations in Syria and calls for urgent international action

Qatar strongly condemned Israeli policies that violate international law, including the repeated attacks on Syrian territories, considering them a serious threat to regional and international peace and security.

This came during the emergency session of the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, convened at Qatar's request to discuss Israeli attacks and their impact on the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Mr. Mutlaq bin Majed Al-Qahtani, Qatar's delegate to the organization, described these attacks as "a clear violation of international law and the UN Charter, especially Article (2) which prohibits the use or threat of force against the sovereignty of states." He also noted that "Israel is obliged to refrain from any action that hinders the achievement of the objectives of the Chemical Weapons Convention, based on Article (18) of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties," emphasizing that "any interference with the objectives of the Convention constitutes a legal violation for which Israel bears the consequences."

Al-Qahtani called on the international community to "condemn these acts and take effective measures to stop them," calling for the protection of Syria's sovereignty and ensuring the continuity of the chemical verification and dismantlement process. He also proposed sending a "field technical mission" to assess the targeted sites, document the damages, and study their impact on the organization, paving the way for legal accountability.

It is worth mentioning that the Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force in Syria on October 14, 2013, a month after the Syrian regime agreed to destroy its chemical arsenal following the chemical attack on Eastern Ghouta in August 2013, which used sarin gas and resulted in the deaths of over 1500 civilians, including children and women.

Despite the organization's announcement in January 2016 of the destruction of all declared chemical weapons, its reports continued to raise suspicions about the regime's production of new chemical weapons, as in the Douma 2018 attack, which left dozens of casualties and hindered the organization's investigations.