What now for the world's chemical weapons watchdog?

By Mark Peplow2018-04-13T17:33:00

A photograph of people receiving treatment following the alleged chemical gas attack in Eastern Ghouta, Syria.

Source: © Mohammad Al Shami / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images

Attacks in Salisbury, Kuala Lumpur and Syria show that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons needs to evolve

When Sergei and Yulia Skripal were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury on 4 March, it took just a few days for investigators to determine that they had been poisoned by a nerve agent.

The UK government quickly called in the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the watchdog agency of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), to provide independent verification. On 12 April, the OPCW confirmed the UK’s finding that the nerve agent was a Novichok — a class of organophosphorus compounds developed in the then-Soviet Union.