International Partnership against impunity for the use of chemical weapons – Supporting the OPCW upon the delivery of the fifth IIT report (10 March 2026)

1. We, the participating States of the International Partnership against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons (PAI), stand together to preserve the international standards and norms against the use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere, under any circumstances.

2. We welcome the publication of the fifth report of the OPCW's Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) on 21 January, 2026, which identifies the Assad-era Syrian Arab Air Forces as responsible for a chemical weapons attack in Kafr Zeita on 1 October, 2016. We express support and appreciation for the professional, impartial, and independent work carried out by the IIT.

3. We strongly condemn the use of chemical weapons by the Assad-era Syrian Arab Air Forces in Kafr Zeita on 1 October, 2016, and by anyone, under any circumstances. We welcome the cooperation of the new Syrian authorities in this investigation, marking the first cooperation by the Syrian Arab Republic with an IIT investigation.

4. We call on all parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention to continue to fight impunity by holding those responsible for the use of chemical weapons to account, including in connection with the attacks in Kafr Zeita. The participating States of the PAI, commit to cooperate to the greatest extent possible in connection with criminal investigations and prosecutions relating to the use of chemical weapons. We also underscore the importance of cooperating with the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI).

5. The fight against impunity can only make progress if states take actions to hold perpetrators to account. We note that judicial proceedings related to the use of chemical weapons are underway in several Partnership State Members. We remain committed, including through capacity-building efforts to bring those responsible to justice.

6. We reiterate our strong support for the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, an essential pillar of the international disarmament and counter proliferation architecture and the rules based international order on which we all rely.

List of PAI participating countries:

Germany
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Canada
Ivory Coast
Denmark
Spain
Estonia
United States
Finland
France
Ghana
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Kuwait
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Morocco
Montenegro
Norway
New Zealand
Netherlands
Peru
Poland
Portugal
Republic of Korea
Czech Republic
United Kingdom
Senegal
Slovakia
Slovenia
Sweden
Switzerland
Tunisia
Turkey
Ukraine
European Union