This week, the State Department released an annual report on compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The most notable findings in the report, which covers Russia, Iran, and Syria, not surprisingly relate to Syria. The report states unequivocally that the “United States assesses that Syria did not declare all the elements of its CW program … and that Syria may retain CWs as defined by the CWC” just as the 2016 report stated, and despite the repeated assertions of the Obama administration to the contrary.
The “Compliance With the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction Condition 10(C)” report, which covers the calendar year 2016, is part of a larger report on compliance with arms control agreements and commitments. THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported earlier this month about the 2015 report, which acknowledged the “obvious gaps, discrepancies and omissions” in Syria’s chemical weapons declarations. This admission is repeated and expanded upon in the current report as well:
Despite the assertion that the U.S. “remained vocal in its support of ongoing” efforts to fill in the “gaps, inconsistencies, and discrepancies” in Syria’s chemical weapons declarations, President Obama said as recently as December 2016 that the 2013 deal brokered by Russia “eliminated Syria’s declared chemical weapons program,” making no mention of the “obvious gaps, discrepancies and omissions” in those declarations.
The report also notes that “[s]imilar to challenges faced in 2014 and 2015, the DAT [Declaration Assessment Team] work in 2016 was hampered by the lack of access to original documentation on Syria’s CW program.” Asked about the report, Markus Binder, a senior researcher and project manager at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, told TWS:
The report also noted that three chemical weapons production facilities “remained to be destroyed as of December 31, 2016.” However, Binder did not find this particularly concerning:
Though the report focused mainly on Syria, the State Department also noted that the U.S. cannot certify that Iran and Russia have met their obligations under the CWC either. Despite both countries’ support of the Syrian regime, however, Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington D.C., does not believe that either country would directly supply chemical weapons to Syria:
The report notes that neither Iran nor Russia has been engaged in direct talks for years. In 2016 “the United States reiterated its proposal to hold expert-level consultations, but Russia has not yet agreed to renew such consultations and none were held during the reporting period.” Regarding Iran, “[s]ince 2004 and through the end of the reporting period, there have been no CWC compliance discussions between the United States and Iran.” This apparently includes the talks held by the Obama administration that led to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
The State Department’s publicly released CWC compliance report is an unclassified version of a more detailed report provided to Congress where “additional information is available.” When asked by TWS about the classified version of the report Tuesday, a national security council official declined to discuss it.
