International Watchdog Discovers Sulfur Mustard Used in Chemical Attack

A report from an international chemical weapons watchdog made public on Tuesday claimed chemicals were used in an attack in Aleppo province last September.

The report cited evidence from two women who had been exposed to sulfur mustard, the United Nations Security Council said.

Investigators from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Fact Finding Mission (FFM) interviewed the women, collected blood samples and analyzed intelligence provided by the Syrian regime and Russia to compile their report for the U.N. Security Council.

“The FFM can confirm that the two female casualties reported to have been involved in the incident in Um Hosh, Aleppo, [on] 16 September 2016 were exposed to sulfur mustard,” the OPCW mission wrote in its report.

The report also referenced a mortar found by Russian investigators at the site two months after the attack; “supported by the results of laboratory analysis,” it said, the FFM was able to determine it as “a munition containing sulfur mustard.”

The mission investigates only if chemical weapons are thought to have been used in attacks. Determining responsibility would require a joint investigation by the U.N. and OPCW.

Trump Administration Places New Sanctions on Syria

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday announced new sanctions on Syria, including on cousins of President Bashar al-Assad, “in response to continued acts of violence committed by the Government of Syria.”

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) cited five Syrian people and five Syrian companies for human rights violations, freezing any U.S. assets they may have and forbidding Americans from doing business with them, the New York Times reported.

Three individuals and three entities were named for their ties to Assad’s cousin, powerful businessman Rami Makhlouf, including two other cousins of Assad, Ihab Makhlouf and Iyad Makhlouf, and the Bustan charity, which Rami used to create “a vast private network of militias and security-linked institutions … to support and augment Syrian military forces.” OFAC also listed the Cham Islamic Bank.

This newest round of sanctions follows last month’s decision by the Treasury Department to place sanctions on 271 people allegedly connected to chemical weapons in Syria.

Erdogan Rejects Alliance Between U.S. and Kurdish Forces in Syria

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected a possible alliance between the U.S. and Kurdish forces fighting the so-called Islamic State in Syria during his visit to Washington on Tuesday, where he met with U.S. president Donald Trump.

“There is no place for terrorist organizations in the future of our region,” Erdogan said during a joint press conference with President Trump on Tuesday, referring to the Syrian Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Units), and their political wing, the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD).

Ankara classifies the YPG as a terrorist group, accusing it of having ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting Turkish forces for decades in southeastern Turkey.

“It is absolutely unacceptable to take the YPG-PYD into consideration as partners in the region, and it’s going against a global agreement we reached,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan’s comments were in response to an earlier Trump administration decision to arm Kurdish forces in their efforts to push ISIS out of the group’s stronghold in Raqqa.

Recommended Reads

• BBC: Syria From Space
• Al Jazeera: Low Expectations as Syria Talks Resume in Geneva
• The New York Times: Syria Denies Burning Bodies of Political Prisoners
• The Financial Times: Syria De-Escalation Deal Stirs Fears of Carve-Up by Foreign Powers
• The New Arab: Islamic State Detonates Twin Car-Bombs in Syrian Refugee Camp