Written question asked by Baroness Cox (Crossbench) on Thursday, 19 December 2019, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 7 January 2020. It was answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon (Conservative) on Tuesday, 7 January 2020 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Syria: Chemical Weapons

Question: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that chlorine levels found in Douma, Syria, were equivalent to those found in common household cleaning products.

Answer: The UK assesses that the Syrian regime was responsible for a chlorine attack in Douma in April 2018. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Fact Finding Mission (FFM) produced a thorough and clearly evidenced report, which concluded that an attack using chlorine took place. The use of chlorine as a chemical weapon is a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention. We have confidence in the conclusion and the OPCW's methodology. The OPCW Director-General confirmed that that the OPCW Technical Secretariat took all views and evidence into account in reaching its conclusions on this incident.

Secondary information