Can Kasapoğlu
The Ongoing Threat from Assad’s Weapons of Mass Destruction
This weekend, a joint offensive of various armed opposition groups toppled the dictatorship of Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad, ending his clan’s 53-year rule. But while the Assad regime is gone, its WMD program remains an urgent problem for the international community.
Assad, who is believed to have fled to Russia, leaves a legacy marked by the pursuit and use of WMDs. In 2013, when Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and agreed to disarm its chemical weapons program, the Assad regime reportedly declared 1,300 tons of chemical warfare agents and precursors and 1,230 unfilled WMD-delivery munitions across 41 facilities at 23 different locations. But declassified Cold War–era data and recent military intelligence assessments suggest that Syria’s chemical warfare efforts run even deeper than those figures suggest.
Just last week, Izumi Nakamitsu, the United Nations under secretary general and high representative for disarmament affairs, warned the UN Security Council that unresolved issues surrounding Syria’s elimination of its chemical weapons program are “extremely worrying.” In its 2023 special report, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) also noted that the Assad regime may possess undeclared stockpiles of chemical weapons.
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