Global Geopolitical Series: OPCW tem arrives in Douma to investigate chemical attack

Latest reports suggest that a team of four scientists with expertise on chemical weapons has arrived on behalf of Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in Syria on a fact-finding mission (FFM) in response to the alleged chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma earlier in the month. OPCW confirmed their arrival in a tweet, “In response to media queries, the Spokesperson for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirms that the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) team is on its way to Syria and will start its work as of Saturday 14 April 2018.”

Both Syria and Russia requested an FFM team to be dispatched after opposition groups claimed that the Syrian army executed a chemical weapons attack there, alleging there were scores of deaths and hundreds of casualties.

Both countries have claimed that the incident was a staged one with the purpose of galvanizing Western rebel backers after the US President Donald Trump earlier announced that he was planning to pull out of Syria, and both Russia and Syria allege that there may not have been any chemical use at all.

The Damascus suburb of Douma was recaptured by the government this week, so the experts from the UN-backed Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are expected to have easier access than on previous occasions when the alleged attacks happened in areas of ongoing fighting or those controlled by radical Islamists. Syrian government has signaled full cooperation, “We will facilitate the arrival of the team to anywhere they want, in Douma, to check whether or not there was use of chemical substance" said Bashar Jaafari, Syria’s envoy to the UN in New York, adding that a second team is due to arrive on Friday.

The FFM would be extremely vital as the NATO allies have threatened to attack President Assad and his army in response to the alleged attack.