Saudi Arabia elected as chair of international chemical weapons organisation

The Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) elected Saudi Arabia yesterday to the presidency of the council for 2022-2023.

The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported that the council will be chaired by the Saudi Ambassador to the Netherlands and the Kingdom’s OPCW permanent representative, Ziyad Bin Maashi Al-Attiyah.

The council is the executive body of the OPCW, which works to promote the effective implementation of and compliance with the convention concerning chemical weapons. It also oversees the activities of the OPCW’s technical secretariat, and approves the body’s draft budget, draft annual report and the special reports it submits to the Conference of State Parties to the Convention.

Saudi Arabia is one of the founding countries of the OPCW and has been an elected member of the Executive Council since its establishment in 1997.

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