April 5, 2017
Experts Available for Comment
The United States on Tuesday blamed the Syrian government for carrying out one of the deadliest chemical weapons attacks in years in Syria. Airstrikes on the northwestern town of Sheikh Khanoun, a rebel-held town administered mainly by al Qaeda and other Islamist groups, delivered an unidentified chemical agent early Tuesday morning.
Experts have stated that the victims’ symptoms are emblematic of a nerve gas, such as sarin, and that the number of deaths are too high for an outdoor chlorine attack.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry denied involvement in Tuesday’s attack, saying it was committed to its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has previously expressed concern about possible undeclared chemical weapons activities in Syria, and found that the Syrian government used chlorine gas as a weapon three times in 2014 and 2015, in violation of the CWC.
Experts Available for Comment
For more on the implications of this latest development, the following CNS experts are available for comment:
- Leonard Spector
Executive Director, Washington, DC Office
[email protected] • 202.842.3100 x 302 - Chen Kane
Director of the Middle East Nonproliferation Program
[email protected] • 202.842.3100 x 303 - Raymond Zilinskas
Director of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Program - Philipp Bleek
Fellow, CNS and Assistant Professor at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies
[email protected] • 831.647.6509
Recent Relevant Analysis
- “Eliminating Weapons of Mass Destruction,” Special Issue of the Nonproliferation Review
- “Eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons: implications for addressing nuclear, biological, and chemical threats,” analysis by Philip Bleek and Nicholas Kramer
- “A Strategy for the Chemical Weapons Convention,” analysis by Gabrielle Tarini
- “Fears Mount Over Assad’s Stockpiles of Chemical Weapons,” PBS News Hour featuring Leonard Spector
For more information or inquiries, please contact Miles Pomper and/or Gabrielle Tarini.
