The Middle East

Chemical Weapons Team Set to Begin Syrian Disarmament

By Thomas Murphy
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria – The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the global agency charged with enforcing the Chemical Weapons Convention, is preparing to send a team of twenty to Syria on Monday. The team will be responsible for setting up a base of operations, secure communications, and other basic necessities to begin the process of destroying Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles. Another team will follow a week later to begin the inspection process.

The headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, Netherlands.

On Saturday, the OPCW agreed to a very ambitious schedule set forth by the United States and Russia, along with their Security Counsel counterparts, to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons. The plan sets a 1 November deadline for the dismantling of all chemical weapons production facilities and a 1 July deadline to destroy all chemical weapons stockpiles. Plans of this nature typically take years to complete, but under such pressing circumstances the OPCW hopes to complete the process in just nine months.

The OPCW, headquartered in The Hague, has handled the destruction of all chemical weapons under the Chemical Weapons Convention since it inception in 1997.  Syria’s membership has been accelerated and it will become the 190th party to the Convention on 14 October. The speed of situation presents a challenge for the OPCW, which typically deals with the disarmament of well-known quantities of US and Russian Cold War stockpiles.

“It’s kind of a 9-to-5 organization, in a way. It’s not a 24-7 organization, and it’s going to have to adapt to that,” said Faiza Patel, a former senior policy officer at the OPCW. “The organization is not really set up to be an investigative organization,” unlike the U.N. investigators who were sent to Iraq in the 1990s, she said. “It’s set up to do routine inspections that are based on the declarations that the states provide.”

Fortunately, most of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles are “unweaponized”, according to US and Russian intelligence and Syrian statements submitted to the OPCW thus far. Essentially, the “vast majority” of nerve agent is in a liquid bulk form and much easier to dispose of compared to battlefield ready liquid or loaded warheads.

For further information, please see:

Washington Post – Inspectors from obscure agency ready to destroy Syrian chemical weapons – 28 September 2013

Wall Street Journal – Weapons Teams Get Set to Tackle Syria’s Chemical Arsenal – 28 September 2013

Time – U.S. and Russia Say Majority of Syrian Chemical Arsenal Is “Unweaponized” –  27 September 2013

Washington Post – Most of Syria’s toxins can be destroyed more easily than officials initially thought – 26 September 2013

UN Security Council Reaches an Agreement Regarding Syria

By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria-UN Diplomats have announced that the five permanent members (France, Britain, Russia, China, and the U.S.) of the divided Security Council have reached an agreement on a resolution requiring Syria to dismantle its chemical-weapons supplies.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discuss the UN Resolution (photo courtesy of Times of Isreal)

Discussions among the five veto-wielding members of the Security Council have been ongoing for weeks attempting to narrow down the precise stipulations of a new resolution.  Final version of the resolution requires that Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile be “secured and dismantled.”

The final agreement was reached a day after Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov stated that a breakthrough had been reached in deciding that the resolution’s text would include references to Chapter 7 of the UN charter allowing military and nonmilitary actions to maintain peace and security.

Reports have indicated that the breakthrough arrived after the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stated that Assad could avoid U.S. military action “by turning over every single bit of his chemical weapons to international control within a week.”

China, historically known for blocking resolutions dealing with the civil war in Syria, seemed to be persuaded by the U.S. sense of urgency.  Kerry stated that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had “strong agreement on the need for a mandatory and binding UN Security Council resolution.”

A U.S. official further stated, “They [U.S. and China] discussed the value of unity among the P5 [permanent Security Council members], and both felt it is important to act quickly.”  However, the U.S. official continued saying “the Chinese gave no indication about whether they would support a resolution that the U.S. and Russia agreed to.”

Ryabkov stated that Russia was prepared to help guard locations of Syrian chemical weapons and destroy President al-Assad’s stockpiles, but would not import them into Russia.  “We believe the destruction [of chemical weapons] on Syrian territory is the best option,” stated Ryabkov.

The United States and Russia are the only countries who the capability to handle mustard, VX, sarin, or cyanide-armed weapons.  However, U.S. law bans the imports of chemical weapons.

Since neither country that has the capability to take on the chemicals is willing to, the UN resolution is designed to implement destabilization of the chemical weapons within Syria at the local sites.  Inspection of these sites are to be completed by November 30 and the entire arsenal destroyed by June 30.

President Obama has stated that the U.S. use of force against Syria for last month’s chemical attack still remains a possibility.  However, a skeptical Congress and Geneva talks has put consideration of attack on hold.

For more information, please see the following: 

Aljazeera-Reports: Deal reached on Syria UN resolution-September 26, 2013

Times of Isreal-World powers reach Syria resolution deal, diplomats say-September 26, 2013

USA Today-U.N. diplomats: Possible deal on Syria resolution-September 26, 2013

Washington Post-U.S., Russia reach agreement on seizure of Syrian chemical weapons arsenal-September 26, 2013

 

U.N. Weapons Inspectors Return to Syria Wednesday

By Thomas Murphy
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria – U.N. chemical weapons inspectors are expected to return to Syria on Wednesday according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. Ryabkov addressed the inspector’s return on Tuesday when he spoke to the Russian parliament regarding the unfolding situation in Syria.

U.N. chemical weapons inspectors research the use of sarin gas in Syria following an attack on 21 August. (Photo Courtesy of Reuters)

“We are satisfied that our persistent calls for the return of the UN inspectors for an investigation of the previous episodes have finally borne fruit,”  said Ryabkov.

The weapons experts will be the same team that visited the country during August to investigate the reports of chemical weapons use. The team, led by Ake Sellstrom, presented their report to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon just over a week ago. The report confirmed that a ‘large scale’ sarin gas attack occurred on 21 August just outside of Damascus.

Before the 21 August attack, the UN weapons inspectors were tasked to investigate several other reports of chemical weapons attacks in Syria. However, when the 21 August attack occurred, the team delayed their research and was relocated to focus exclusively on the Damascus attack.

In a statement Tuesday, the U.N. said the investigation will include gathering evidence specifically from the village of Khan al-Assal. The village, just outside of Aleppo, was reportedly the target of a chemical weapons attack on 19 March of this year. Not surprisingly, the rebel opposition and the Assad government adamantly deny responsibility and blame the other.

There have been a total of fourteen alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria since the revolution against the Assad government began in 2011. Two locations of particular interest to United Nations chemical weapons inspectors are Sheikh Maqsoud and Saraqeb. Inspectors received permission from the Assad government to visit the sites back in July, but have been unable to inspect the sites yet.

In late August, the inspectors were to continue there research at sites other than just the Damascus location, but inspectors left the country as the threat U.S. military intervention increased. Since, the U.S. and Russia have come to a general agreement regarding the removal of all chemical weapons from Syria. The passage of an official resolution via the United Nations is expected soon.

For further information, please see:

BBC – UN chemical weapons inspectors ‘to return to Syria’ – 24 September 2013

Huffington Post – UN Chemical Weapons Inspectors Returning To Syria – 24 September 2013

RT – UN chemical weapons experts to return to Syria Wednesday – Moscow –  24 September 2013

Voice of America – Russia: UN Investigators Heading Back to Syria – 24 September 2013

Egyptian Court bans all Muslim Brotherhood Activities

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan

Impunity Watch, Middle East

CAIRO, Egypt –An Egyptian court issued a verdict Monday effectively banning  the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist political party that was  nation’s most powerful political group under the regime of the democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi. The Muslim brotherhood, its supporters and other Islamist groups in Egypt have been involved in protest against the July 3 coup that took President Morsi out of power.

Muslim Brotherhood supporters protesting in Cairo, Egypt, this month. (Photo courtesy of The Guardian)

The Presiding Judge, Mohammed al-Sayed, said “The court bans the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood organization and its non-governmental organization and all the activities that it participates in and any organization derived from it.” According to MENA, the Egyptian state media, The Cairo Court for Urgent Matters decision to issue a ruling “to ban all activities by the Muslim Brotherhood organisation, the group emanating from it and its non-governmental organisation,” effectively amounts to a ban on the political party and any organization with ties to it. The ruling is a temporary action, it amounts to a preliminary injunction banning the activities of the organization. The ruling will stand until a higher court issues a permanent verdict.

The court was unclear about its reasons for deciding to ban the Muslim Brotherhood but the decision was issued after the leftist party, Tagammu, had sought the immediate action. The Tagammu party accused the Muslim Brotherhood of inciting “terrorism” and of exploiting religion for political gain.

The move has essentially returned the Muslim Brotherhood to its status as an illegal political organization it held under former President Hosni Mubarak. The Muslim Brotherhood has been outlawed for most of its 85 year history.

Ibrahim Moneir, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, called the court’s ruling a “totalitarian decision.” He said that despite the ruling the organization “will remain with God’s help, not by the orders by the judiciary of el-Sisi.” The “judiciary of el-Sisi” refers to General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who led the military coup that resulted in the overthrow of President Morsi on July 3.

The Muslim Brotherhood stated its belief that it will not be destroyed by the courts ruining on its official twitter feed. The tweet read; “The Muslim Brotherhood is part and parcel of Egyptian society. Corrupt and politically motivated judicial decisions cannot change that,” the Brotherhood said via its Twitter feed, in response to the verdict.

More than 2,000 Egyptian Islamists have been arrested over the past two months, the majority of those arrested have were Brotherhood supporters. Protests organized Pro-Morsi protesters, including Brotherhood supporters, have been violently cracked-down by the military government and many of the organizations leaders and supporters, including Morsi, have been arrested for “inciting terrorism.”

For More Information Please See:

Al Jazeera – Egypt Court Bans all Brotherhood Activities – 23 September 2013

The Guardian – Muslim Brotherhood Banned by Egyptian Court – 23 September 2013

National Public Radio – Egyptian Court Bans the Muslim Brotherhood – 23 September 2013

The New York Times – Egyptian Court Shuts Down the Muslim Brotherhood and Seizes Its Assets – 23 September 2013

Russia Accuses the West of Exploiting Syrian U.N. Deal

By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

 DAMASCUS, Syria-Accusations of exploitation have been directed towards the U.S. and other major Western players involved in dealing with Syria’s chemical weapons.  Russia has claimed that the West is using the chemical weapons deal in the United Nations to threaten force against President Bashar al-Assad.

Lavrov and Kerry discussing Syria on Sunday.

The U.S., France, and Britain are pushing for a council resolution of the United Nation’s Charter, which if passed would authorize military intervention or sanctions if Damascus were to back out of its commitments.

The first commitment issued to Assad by the U.S.-Russia accord was met with compliance when he provided information about Syria’s chemical arsenal to the United Nations.  However, major powers on the U.N. Security Council have been in disagreement with how to further proceed.

Russia and China have blocked three draft resolutions on Syria since the start of the 2011 uprising against Assad.  Both countries oppose Western threats against an ally which Moscow has continually armed and supported during the civil war.

“They [the West] see in the U.S.-Russian deal not a chance to save the planet from significant quantities of chemical weapons in Syria, but as a chance to do what Russia and China will not allow, namely to push through a resolution involving the threat of force against the regime and shielding the opposition,” stated Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Lavrov further claimed, “An international presence is needed on the perimeters of the areas where the experts will work.  We are willing to send our troops and military police to participate.”

Lavrov concluded saying, “I do not think that there is a need for a major contingent.  I think military observers will be sufficient.”

In responses, a U.S. State Department official reported that other council member states of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had not yet seen the information regarding the chemical weapons status in Syria.  “We will make an evaluation of the document after it has been distributed to member states,” said the official.

Should the council resolution be passed, the world would see the destruction of nearly 1,000 tons of mustard gas, VX, and sarin which are believed to be in the possession of Syria.  The U.S.-Russia accord has also shown promise of a revised international political solution to the Syrian conflict as a whole.

For more information, please see the following: 

Aljazeera-Russia says West exploiting Syria deal-September 22, 2013

Reuters-Russia says West exploiting Syria deal to threaten force-September 22, 2013

Voice of America-Lavrov: US Trying to Blackmail Russia on UN Syria Resolution-September 22, 2013

Voice of Russia-Russian foreign chief Sergei Lavrov says US ‘overtly blackmailing’ Moscow on Syria-September 21, 2013