States parties to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have restored Syria’s voting rights, citing a “fundamental change of circumstances” following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Reuters reports.

Syria was stripped of a number of rights in the OPCW in 2021 after investigations concluded that government forces had repeatedly used chemical weapons during the civil war. At the time, the decision served as a political signal that violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention would not be tolerated.

The OPCW said that Syria’s new authorities had committed themselves to meeting the convention’s requirements and had already taken concrete steps in that direction.

Syria’s transitional government also pledged to cooperate with the international community to eliminate remaining stockpiles of chemical weapons inherited from the former regime. In May, a Syrian official told Reuters that the authorities had discovered remnants of Bashar al-Assad’s secret chemical weapons programme, including precursor materials and munitions similar to those used in deadly gas attacks during the war.

Earlier investigations by the UN and a special OPCW team concluded that Syrian government forces had used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine, killing and injuring thousands of people. Syria’s Assad-era authorities and Russia repeatedly rejected these accusations.

The OPCW Executive Council said it would continue to monitor Syria’s fulfilment of its obligations and oversee the destruction of the remaining chemical weapons stockpiles.