THE Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has found itself at the centre of a political row after it issued a statement condemning Syria for using sarin and chlorine bombs against its own people.

In a statement released late on Thursday the chemical watchdog said that it had “reasonable grounds to believe that the Syrian Arab Republic used chemical weapons in Ltamenah … in March 2017.”

It claimed that the OPCW investigation and identification Team (IIT) had established that “the Syrian Arab Republic failed to declare and destroy all of its chemical weapons and chemical weapons production facilities” despite claiming to have done so.