World News
Syria destroys 42 chemical aerial bombs in the first verified destruction since 2014
By Staff Writer | 4 September 2026
The United Nations' senior disarmament official told the Security Council on 3 September that inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had verified the irreversible destruction of 42 aerial bombs, the first verified destruction of chemical munitions in Syria in twelve years.
Syria has begun destroying the remnants of the chemical weapons programme run under its former government, Syrian and United Nations officials told the Security Council on 3 September. Izumi Nakamitsu, the United Nations High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, said that for the first time since 2014 the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had verified the destruction of chemical munitions in the country.
The organisation deployed a team to Syria in August to verify the destruction of what the Chemical Weapons Convention calls category three chemical weapons, meaning unfilled munitions and other equipment designed to release chemical agents. Ms Nakamitsu said the team verified the irreversible destruction of 42 aerial bombs.
What was found in May
Syria's new authorities located remnants of the former programme in May. Since then, Ms Nakamitsu said, Syria has found "one additional chemical weapons production facility, a newly discovered chemical used in the production of nerve agents, and empty chemical munitions", and has declared two chemical weapons storage facilities. The Security Council's resolution 2118 of 2013 called for the complete elimination of Syria's programme, and the organisation's inspectors had been unable since 2014 to confirm that the declaration made under the former government was accurate and complete.
Syria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ibrahim Olabi, told the Council that the operation was the first destruction of chemical munitions on Syrian territory since 2014.
It's also the first of its kind to destroy chemical materials on Syrian territory for over a decade.
Ibrahim Olabi, Permanent Representative of Syria to the United Nations
Mr Olabi said Syria was protecting the region and the world through the work and that details of the progress made are set out in reports issued by the Syrian government and by the organisation. He said the national teams follow the security and safety standards but face real risk from the environment in which they operate. He also told the Council that repeated Israeli attacks had impeded some search and destruction operations, halted them completely at certain stages and exposed the national teams, the organisation's teams and the sites being secured to danger. That is his statement to the Council and it is reported as such.
Prosecutions to follow
Syrian authorities took 18 suspects into custody earlier this year over alleged involvement in the former programme, described as including senior military, political and technical officials. Mr Olabi said Syria was preparing to hold the first court hearing of people suspected of involvement, and that its position on justice and accountability was firm and not negotiable.
The engineering point is the sequence. Sites are secured first, munitions identified, unfilled items destroyed under verification, and only then the harder categories. Ms Nakamitsu's June briefing to the same Council recorded the outstanding concern as potentially large quantities of undeclared and unverified warfare agents and munitions. Forty two empty bombs is a verified start on the easiest tier, and the organisation said so.
The next report to the Council will show whether the filled material follows. For now, the number that changed on 3 September is the one that had stood at zero since 2014.