Syria's transitional government has recovered remnants of the former Assad regime's chemical weapons program, according to a senior Syrian official speaking to Reuters. The discovery marks the first confirmed recovery of chemical weapons materials since Bashar al-Assad's government collapsed in late 2024.
The find carries significance because Assad's government had officially declared its chemical weapons stockpile destroyed under a 2013 agreement brokered by Russia and the United States following a sarin gas attack that killed over 1,400 people in Damascus suburbs. That deal, overseen by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, was supposed to have eliminated Syria's entire declared arsenal by mid-2014.
The Syrian official did not specify the type or quantity of materials recovered, nor the location where they were found. The official also did not indicate whether the remnants represented undeclared stockpiles hidden during the 2013–2014 disarmament process or components that had been retained for research purposes under exceptions in the Chemical Weapons Convention.
"Remnants of the chemical weapons program have been recovered," the official told Reuters.