Syria to submit chem. disarmament plan before deadline: OPCW
Iran Press TV
Wed Oct 23, 2013 2:23PM GMT
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) says the Syrian government will submit a plan on the elimination of its chemical arsenal within the following hours, days before deadlines set by the organization.
"We expect Syria's initial declaration of its chemical weapons program within the next 24 hours," the organization said in a statement on Wednesday.
"We're reaching the end of this first stage, during which we needed to verify the chemical warfare program by visiting all the disclosed sites," the statement added.
Some 60 OPCW and UN experts and support staff are in Syria to implement a UN resolution on scrapping the Syrian chemical arsenal. The United Nations Security Council approved the resolution on September 27.
The expert team has until November 1 to inspect the chemical weapons arsenal declared by the Syrian government and keep a tab on the destruction of the related facilities.
In accordance with the deadlines set by the OPCW's Executive Council, the Syrian government has until October 27 to hand over its "initial" plan relating to the destruction of its chemical weapons and facilities.
On Tuesday, Sigrid Kaag, the head of the joint OPCW and UN team said, "To date, the government of Syria has fully cooperated in supporting the work of the advance team and the OPCW-UN joint mission… There is continuous strong cooperation which the Secretary General and the Director General of the OPCW have also confirmed in recent statements."
On September 14, Russia and the United States agreed on a deal according to which Syria would have its chemical weapons stockpiles eliminated and the US would in return not carry out planned strikes on the Middle Eastern country.
The agreement came after days of mounted war rhetoric against Syria by the US and some of its allies, which blamed Damascus for a fatal chemical attack on the outskirts of the Syrian capital on August 21.
Damascus has vehemently denied the accusations, saying the attack was carried out by the militants operating inside the country as a false-flag operation.
Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. According to reports, the Western powers and their regional allies -- especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey -- are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.
According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in the violence.
MAM/MAM
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
