Syria rebuilding chemical weapons stockpile, UK envoy warns UN

Assessment comes after watchdog finds Assad regime used chlorine gas in Douma attack

An affected man puts the aerosol mask on his child while his other daughter gives treatment to her other sister after a shelling attack on rebels-held Eastern Ghouta. EPA

A child receiving oxygen through respirators following an alleged poison gas attack in the rebel-held town of Douma on Sunday, April 8, 2018. Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP

Syrian civil defence volunteers, known as the White Helmets, work around destroyed buildings following reported air strikes on the rebel-held town of Douma. AFP, file

A Syrian child who was injured in shelling on the town of Misraba receives treatment at a make-shift hospital in the besieged rebel-held town of Douma. AFP

A Syrian man pushes out of a crowd after Syrian authorities distributed bread, vegetables and pasta to hungry Douma residents. AP

Russia vetoes a UN Security Council resolution that would have set up an investigation into chemical weapons use in Syria on April 10, 2018. AFP

UN vehicles carrying the team of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). AP, File

Labels of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are seen inside a damaged house in Douma in Damascus, Syria April 23, 2018. Reuters

The Syrian government unleashed a ferocious assault on the then-rebel stronghold of Eastern Ghouta on February 18, 2018 aiming to crush militant groups on the doorstep of the capital. Civilans were trapped and many died. AFP

What appears to be white phosphorus incendiaries over Douma during regime bombardment of what was one of the few remaining rebel-held pockets in Eastern Ghouta. AFP, file

A Syrian man helps evacuate an injured victim following Syrian government air strikes on the Eastern Ghouta rebel-held enclave of Douma, on the outskirts of the capital Damascus on March 20, 2018. AFP

A woman gestures as she walks on rubble of damaged buildings after an airstrike in the besieged in eastern Ghouta. Reuters

Syrians search for survivors following regime air strikes on the rebel-held besieged town of Douma in the eastern Ghouta region. AFP

Syrian children sit before a mural on a wall bearing the logo of the Syrian Red Crescent in the Syrian town of Douma in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus on March 13, 2018. AFP

A shepherd leads his flock away from Douma to safer areas in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus, on March 7, 2018. AFP

People ride a horse along a damaged street at the city of Douma in Damascus. Reuters

People walk on rubble of damaged buildings in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta. Reuters, file

The regime of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has been actively rebuilding its chemical weapons stockpile since at least 2018, Britain's ambassador to the UN told the Security Council said on Tuesday.

Barbara Woodward's assessment follows last week's release of a report from Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, in The Hague, which confirmed that the Syrian regime was responsible for the 2018 chemical weapons attack on the city of Douma.

“It’s of grave concern," Ms Woodward said of the new stockpiles.

“Yet again, we are faced with undeniable evidence that the Syrian state has used chemical weapons to murder its own citizens"

She urged the Syrian regime to destroy all stockpiles, adding: “We owe it to those who have suffered such attacks to hold Syria to account.”

When asked about Ms Woodward's assertion that his country is building its chemical weapons stockpile, Syria's ambassador to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, said it was part of Britain's “hostile propaganda”.

The UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, repeated the need to identify and hold accountable any entity that would “dare” to use chemical weapons.

“The absence of accountability for that use is a threat to international peace and security and a danger to us all,” Ms Nakamitsu said.

She said the OPCW was preparing a new round of investigations and Syria continued to hinder them.

The OPCW investigation into the April 2018 Douma attack was conducted between January 2021 and December 2022.

The report stated that during the major military offensive aimed at removing rebels from the outskirts of Damascus and regaining control of Douma, “at least one Mi-8/17 helicopter” of the Syrian “Tiger Forces” unit “dropped two yellow cylinders” containing toxic chlorine gas, which hit “two residential buildings in a central area” of Douma.

The first cylinder “ruptured, and rapidly released toxic gas, chlorine, in very high concentrations, which rapidly dispersed within the building”, killing 43 people, the OPCW report said.

The second cylinder smashed into an apartment and slowly released some chlorine, “mildly affecting those who first arrived at the scene”.

Douma was the final target of the Syrian regime campaign to reclaim control of the Eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus from opposition forces.

The report said the Investigation and Identification Team received “credible information, corroborated through multiple sources” that Russian forces were co-located at Dumayr airbase alongside the Tiger Forces.

Bonnie Jenkins, US undersecretary for arms control, pointed out the “extremely troubling role of the Russian forces” after the attack.

“When Syrian and Russian military police denied and delayed OPCW's inspectors access to the site in an effort to set up their own state investigations, they also attempted to sanitise the site and remove incriminating evidence of chemical weapon use,” Ms Jenkins said.

Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, said Moscow rejected “in advance" any IIT findings.

"Its destructive and politicised activity has nothing to do with the principles of impartiality and objectivity," Mr Nebenzia said.

About the time of the attack, Syria's ally Moscow claimed that the UK was responsible for staging “the fake chemical weapons attack” in Douma, as a pretext for launching a wider military assault on the Syrian regime.

Fernando Arias, director general of the OPCW, said “the work of the IIT proves that the attack could not be staged".

The UN watchdog called on Damascus to co-operate with the international community and hand over military personnel who were behind the attack.