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On May 4, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) announced in an official statement that its fact finding mission in Syria has been completed. In late April, OPCW experts visited two sites in Duma district where chemical weapons were allegedly used on April 7 and collected samples there.
According to the OPCW statement, the samples collected by its fact finding mission will be brought to the its main laboratory in the city of Rijswijk, where they will be split and then dispatched to the designated laboratories. The organization added that the analysis of the samples may take at least three to four weeks.
“At this time, it is not possible to give a timeframe for when the Duma report will be issued to States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention,” the OPCW said in its official statement.
The OPCW stressed in its statement that more than 96% of Syria’s chemical weapons had been destroyed under its verification. Despite of this, the US and its allies claimed on several occasions that Syria is still developing, producing and even using chemical weapons.
The OPCW final report is crucial to reveal what really happen in the Duma district on April 7. However, Syrian experts doubt that it will have any real impact on the military or political attitude of the US-led coalition towards the conflict in Syria.
