The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons told Syria on Monday it is under obligation to comply with rules to safeguard and destroy dangerous substances, such as chlorine gas, after insurgents entered the capital Damascus at the weekend and overthrew the regime of President Bashar Assad.

The meeting was called by the organization’s executive council to discuss the current situation in Syria as well as the status of ongoing investigations in the country.

Members of the ousted Syrian government plan to gradually transfer power to a new transitional cabinet headed by Mohammed al-Bashir, who reportedly headed the insurgent alliance’s “salvation government” in its southwest Syrian stronghold.

Outgoing officials met for the first time Tuesday with al-Bashir, who told reporters that the transitional period would last until the beginning of March.

Assad’s regime denied using chemical weapons, but the OPCW has found evidence indicating their repeated use by Syria in the country’s grinding civil war.

Earlier this year, it found the Islamic State group had used mustard gas against the town of Marea in 2015.

The US has said it will recognize and support a new Syrian government that renounces terrorism, destroys chemical weapons stocks and protects the rights of minorities and women.

“When it comes to this question of inspections and verifications, it is the responsibility of that organization to conduct verification efforts under its mandate, not any of the member states or the United States or other states. That, the OPCW will do,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington on Tuesday.

Israel invaded Syria's buffer zone and carried out more than 480 strikes over the last 48 hours, hitting “most of the strategic weapons stockpiles” in the country. Both aggressions were condemned by the international community. 

The buffer zone inside Syria was established more than 50 years ago.