Sunday marked the ninth anniversary of the Ghouta chemical massacre on August 21, 2013. The attack claimed the lives of at least 1,347 people in the East and West Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, and injured more than 10,626 others, more than two-thirds of whom were children and women. Every year, Syrians keep its memory alive, bringing the events and pain of that day back to the forefront.

In April 2018, the Syrian regime took control of East Ghouta and regained access to all its territories, including the graves of the martyrs and the targeted sites. During the regime’s military campaign to retake the area, another chemical weapons attack occurred on April 7, 2018, in Douma city.

From 2012 to the 2018 Douma chemical massacre, the Syrian regime used chemical weapons more than 200 times. The 2013 Ghouta attack was strike number 32. Weeks after the 2013 massacre, the United States and Russia reached a deal in Geneva on September 14, 2013. Under the agreement, Syria acceded to the international Chemical Weapons Convention and pledged to eliminate its arsenal of chemical weapons. In return, the US government stopped pressing for a military campaign against Damascus, and then-President Obama’s red line regarding chemical weapons was disregarded.

In the United Nations Security Council, the agreement translated into Resolution 2118. Article 15 of the resolution expressed “strong conviction that those individuals responsible for the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic should be held accountable.” In the event of “non-compliance with this resolution,” Article 21 stated that measures would be imposed “under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.”

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