Eurasia Press & News
Despite a Sunni majority in Syria, the Assad regime has managed to maintain its dominance through a combination of autocratic and kleptocratic rule, using patronage to secure loyalty. On 8 December 2024, following a 10-day uprising, Bashar al-Assad, son of Hafez al-Assad, was brought down along with the entire Assad Regime.
The Syrian Civil War has highlighted the human tragedy and the failure of many international conventions aimed at preventing the use of banned weapons, including chemical warfare. Despite global prohibitions and condemnation, several Syrian actors have been known to deploy these weapons against protestors and civilians on multiple occasions. With the formation of a new Syrian government, the issue of chemical weapons has assumed a renewed urgency in making Syria a state free of such weapons.
Bashar al-Assad’s regime and chemical warfare
Chemical warfare has seen use across multiple incidents of warfare throughout history. During World War I, several countries employed chlorine and mustard gases, resulting in at least 1.3 million people being affected and the death of over 90,000 people. The tragedies of the War led to many negotiations around the use and disuse of chemical weapons, leading to the formation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in 1993, officiating an agreement aimed at the cessation of the use of chemical weapons, and the elimination of their resurfacing.
Nevertheless, between 1993 and 2020, there have been over 300 cases of chemical weapons use. One such prominent case was the 2017 assassination of Kim Jong Nam, allegedly ordered by his cousin and North Korean Leader, Kim Jong Un, and the 2018 assassination of Sergei Skripal, allegedly by the Russian State.
Key incidents of chemical weapon use
The Syrian civil war also sought to disillusion the world on the mitigation of such atrocities. As the Syrian opposition started gaining ground, the Assad regime threatened and terrified of losing power, resorted to using chemical weapons to preserve its authority and control the dissidents. In particular, sarin, chlorine, and mustard gas were used indiscriminately against military and civilian infrastructures. There have been 13 isolated attacks in Syria attributed to different actors from 2013 to 2020.
Table 1: Alleged Cases of Chemical Weapon Use in Syria 2013-2020
Three cases of chemical weapons in civilian areas have left a global impact. The first major chemical weapons attack in the Syrian Civil War took place during the Ghouta attack in 2013. Rockets armed with sarin gas were shot from the early morning hours into rebel-controlled sectors of Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, resulting in the death of 1500 people. The Ghouta attack shocked the international community, as it represented a clear violation of the CWC and raised alarms about the regime’s willingness to use weapons of mass destruction. Although Assad’s regime denied responsibility, alleging that insurgents were responsible for the attack, growing evidence from the United Nations (UN) investigators suggested that Assad’s forces perpetrated the crime.
In 2017, sarin was also found in Khan Shaykhun, where another rebel stronghold was bombed, killing over 80 people, including children. Responding to that attack, the US conducted missile strikes, launching 59 tomahawk missiles on the assumed origin of the chemical attack, the Shayrat Airbase. Notwithstanding the US actions and the international community’s condemnation, the resolution was not adopted by the UN Security Council due to Russia’s use of Veto, where the Assad regime appeared unaffected, continuing its use of chemical weapons in later incidents.
In 2018, a chlorine gas assault in the city of Douma, Eastern Ghouta district, killed 42 individuals in a civilian area in an attempt to target a rebel base. The Syrian regime had been trying to achieve a recapture of the region, and the chemical attack took place as a prelude to a concerted effort to annex the territory. The attack was deployed amid an evacuation agreement, impacting civilians who were attempting to leave an area under attack. The international community, including the United States (US), France, and the United Kingdom (UK), condemned the attack, accusing the Syrian government of using chemical weapons. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) dispatched a fact-finding mission (FFM) to examine the incident. Following that rebuke, the US, UK, and France conducted airstrikes against facilities that they alleged were associated with the Syrian chemical weapons effort. Despite the retaliatory strikes, the Assad regime, while denying liability for the attack, instead attributed it to the rebels, and the airstrikes again failed to interrupt the regime’s activities.
The end of the Assad regime, accountability, and enforcement
Despite such numerous reports, investigations, and condemnations, including those by the UN and OPCW, Assad’s government faced little consequence for its actions. Efforts to hold the Assad regime accountable was met with significant challenges, including the consistent opposing positions from allied nations such as Russia, which repeatedly vetoed proposed actions in the United Nations Security Council.
While the regime’s fall may be considered a geopolitical win, it does not negate the need to hold defence forces accountable for war crimes that particularly used chemical weapons against civilians. The non-enforcement of the CWC and the resistance to international retaliation have revealed the flaws in the fundamentals of the CWC and other international conventions. The voluntary nature and lack of enforcement rules in such frameworks make them little more than symbolic gestures, failing to translate into meaningful action or real accountability. The Syrian case conveys that international legal frameworks should be established and actively enforced through attribution and accountability globally, and domestically.
Despite the end of the Assad Regime, Syria still contains stockpiles of chemical weapons and now must clear them to ensure such weapon use is not seen in the future. The CWC must be strengthened, and its enforcement must be redefined to prevent future tragedies. First, increasing the attribution of chemical attacks is essential. Investigative bodies like the OPCW must be better equipped to gather irrefutable evidence and ensure that perpetrators are identified; sub-committees like the FFM and JIM (Joint investigative mechanisms) must perform regular check-ins, especially in the trade and access of materials that help formulate chemical weapons and ensure accountability in not just the case of use, but also in the supply chains routed to those using chemical weapons.
In addition to the control and monitoring of chemicals, the removal and control of the infrastructure for manufacturing chemical weapons is equally important. Those suspected of resuming or resurrecting their production must be under the international community’s immediate radar while invoking sanctions. Countries that are behind procurers of iodine strokes, much like in the situation of Syria with Iran and Russia, should face diplomatic, financial, and judicial repercussions.
Strengthening the CWC’s attribution, accountability, and international cooperation mechanisms are vital in holding perpetrators accountable and deterring future violations. As Syria recovers from the Assad regime, the international community must prioritise the destruction of its remaining chemical weapons stockpiles. Only through robust monitoring, stricter controls on chemical precursors, and a unified global response can we prevent further atrocities and guarantee that chemical weapons will never again be used as a tool of war.
