The Long Shadow of Syria’s Chemical Weapons

On April 10, Um Mohammed sat in her small home in Zamalka, Syria, gently running her finger across a photograph of her two young grandchildren. Eight years earlier, in the early hours of Aug. 21, 2013, they were killed in their sleep in a sarin gas attack on their neighborhood in eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus. Their deaths were part of an attack that killed more than 1,400 people, an atrocity that became a turning point in the Syrian civil war and sparked an international agreement to eliminate Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons stockpiles. But the international community failed to keep its word, and now, following the fall of the Assad regime last December, many victims and activists are calling for a renewed push to identify and destroy any remaining chemical weapons.

“The world was silent in the face of Bashar al-Assad’s crimes,” Um Mohammed said. “My grandchildren were buried in the earth, but their murderer is still free.”

After eight years in exile in Turkey, Um Mohammed recently returned to her heavily damaged home in Zamalka, hoping to finally see justice for her family. Her sentiment was echoed by dozens of Syrians whom Foreign Policy spoke with in early April in areas around Damascus that were targeted with chemical weapons by the Assad regime.

With the Assad regime gone, Syria’s transitional government has expressed a willingness to cooperate with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on a new disarmament process. OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias has spoken of his interest in visiting the 20 sites across Syria that the Assad regime declared were part of its chemical weapons program but that the OPCW was never able to verify. But despite the new openness from Damascus, a critical barrier to comprehensive disarmament remains: the United States.

Under former President Donald Trump, the United States cut off funding for many USAID programs in Syria that provided crucial support for civil society groups, including the White Helmets, that were involved in documenting and responding to chemical weapons attacks. Those groups, including teams of medical personnel and civil defense volunteers, were essential to assisting international monitors in their efforts to investigate and verify chemical weapons use. With their funding drastically reduced, the ability of these groups to support future disarmament efforts is in doubt.

“We need the international community to pressure the new Syrian government to fully cooperate with the OPCW and allow access to all sites,” said Muhammad Rahmeh, a former White Helmet volunteer who was among the first responders to the 2013 Ghouta attack. “But without the support of groups like the White Helmets on the ground, it will be much harder to locate and secure any remaining chemical weapons.”