Clutching his passport and ticket to Seattle, Waleed Salem had a sinking feeling he would be prevented from boarding his flight from Cairo because of his academic research. His hunch proved right. The political science doctoral candidate at the University of Washington had already tried to fly out in May last year to see his 13-year-old daughter but authorities confiscated his
On April 29, 1997, the Chemical Weapons Convention – which banned the development, production or stockpiling of chemical weapons – came into force.
Since then, over 70,000 metric tonnes of stockpiles and chemical agents have been destroyed under the agreement. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), 193 states, or 98 percent of the world’s population, now live under the protection of the convention.
Only four countries have not signed or ratified the convention. They include: Egypt, South Sudan, North Korea and Israel (signed but not ratified).
Types of chemical agents
1. Choking agents
These gas-dispersed chemicals damage the nose, throat and lungs, causing victims to choke. When inhaled, they cause the air sacs in the lungs to secrete fluid, which essentially drowns those affected.
Syria stripped of voting rights by global chemical weapons watchdog The French proposal to suspend Syria s rights and privileges in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons followed repeated reports of government forces using chemical weapons against civilians.
(L to R) Syrian ambassador to the Netherlands Bassam Sabbagh, S. Kikot of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Russian ambassador to the Netherlands Alexander Shulgin and President of the Russian Foundation for the Study of Democracy Maxim Grigoriev attend a press conference organized by the Russian Embassy on the use of chemical weapons in Syria, on July 12, 2019, in Amsterdam.
April 21, 2021
A global chemical weapons watchdog has voted to suspend Syria’s voting rights in the organization, an unprecedented rebuke in response to the regime’s use of poison gas against its own people.
Intel: US endorses watchdog report blaming Syria for chemical attack al-monitor.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from al-monitor.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.