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Watchdog gets details of Syrian chemical arsenal

Published:Monday | September 23, 2013 | 12:00 AM
In this file photo released August 31 by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, samples brought back by the UN chemical weapons inspection team are checked in upon their arrival at The Hague, Netherlands. Syria has sent the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons an "initial declaration" outlining its weapons programme, the organisation said on Friday. - FILE

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP):

Technical experts at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were reviewing on Saturday a further disclosure from Syria about its chemical weapons program.

A day earlier, the body that polices the global treaty outlawing chemical weapons said it had received a preliminary submission from Syria.

No details have been released of what is in the Syrian declarations, and OPCW spokesman Michael Luhan refused to give any more information about the latest submission.

Under a United States-Russia agreement aimed at swiftly ridding Syria of its chemical arsenal, Damascus had until Saturday to submit a full list to the organisation of its chemical weapons and production facilities so they can be secured and destroyed.

US officials said last week that Washington and Moscow agreed that Syria had roughly 1,000 metric tons (1,100 tons) of chemical weapons agents and precursors, including blister agents such as sulfur and mustard gas, and nerve agents like sarin.

In the aftermath of the United Nation's (UN) report that concluded sarin had been used in an August 21 attack in Damascus, the Hague-based chemical weapons watchdog is looking for ways to fast-track moves to secure and destroy Syria's arsenal of poison gas and nerve agents, as well as its production facilities.

EFFORTS MOVING SLOWLY

However, diplomatic efforts to speed up the process are moving slowly. A meeting initially scheduled for Sunday, at which the organisation's 41-nation executive council was to have discussed a US-Russian plan to swiftly rid Syria of chemical weapons, was postponed Friday. No new date has yet been set for the meeting and no reason given for its postponement.

Under the US-Russia agreement brokered last weekend in Geneva, inspectors will be on the ground in Syria by November. During that month, they are to complete their initial assessment and all mixing and filling equipment for chemical weapons is to be destroyed. All components of the chemical weapons programme are to be removed from the country or destroyed by mid-2014.

The destruction plan of action will be backed up by a UN Security Council resolution.