OPCW to Hold Special Session on Alleged Use of Chemical Weapons in Syria

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will convene for a special session devoted to the alleged chemical weapons use in Syria on Monday, organization's Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said in a note.

"The Chairperson of the Executive Council… Ambassador Sheikh Mohammed Belal of Bangladesh, in consultation with the Director-General, has requested that a meeting of the Council be convened to discuss alleged use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic… Director-General hereby notifies the members of the Council of the request for a meeting, to be held at 10:00 am on Monday [08:00 GMT], 16 April 2018," the note read.

The meeting is planned to be held in the OPCW headquarters in The Hague, the note said.

The provisional agenda for the meeting, included in the annex of the note, envisages the adoption of a report on the incident.

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Recent reports have emerged about an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria, published by Syrian opposition online news portals on April 7, claiming that a chemical attack took place in Syria in the city of Douma near Damascus.

Reacting to the reports, the United States and the European Union said Syrian government of President Bashar Assad were behind the attack.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has asked the Syrian government to take measures for the deployment of a fact-finding mission to the Syrian city of Douma to establish facts surrounding the alleged used of chemical weapons in the area.