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.