Chemical watchdog to deploy second team to Syria
Oct 08, – The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons “will deploy a second team of inspectors for the mission in Syria,” it said in a statement.
“That will augment the advance team of OPCW experts, who have been in Syria since October 1 conducting verification and destruction activities,” it said, without providing further details on the new inspectors.
The OPCW, which has until mid-2014 to complete the destruction of Syria’s chemical arsenal under the terms of a Russia-US-brokered agreement, is holding a regular meeting of its Executive Council this week.
The organisation’s Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu briefed diplomats at the meeting on progress made so far in Syria. He is due to hold a press conference near OPCW headquarters in The Hague on Wednesday.
He confirmed that Syria was cooperating with the joint OPCW-UN disarmament mission, and had on Sunday begun destroying some chemical weapons.
A range of other items was also being destroyed “towards the goal of rendering unusable all production facilities and mixing and filling equipment by November 1 of this year,” the statement said.
“These developments present a constructive beginning for what will nonetheless be a long and difficult process,” Uzumcu said.
A deal providing for the UN to facilitate security and field logistics for the mission will be inked shortly, he added.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon said on Monday that around 100 international experts would have to spend up to a year in war-torn Syria to destroy its chemical weapons in an unprecedented mission.
A joint UN-OPCW mission would supervise the destruction of President Bashar Al Assad’s chemical arms in line with a Security Council resolution passed on September 27, Ban said in a report to the UN Security Council.
A team of around 20 experts is already in Syria to start the destruction of weapons production facilities.
Ban recommended that the mission have its headquarters in Damascus and a support base in nearby Cyprus.
Russia has praised Damascus for “very actively” cooperating with the chemical weapons inspectors, and the US has welcomed progress made so far.
Category: Arab uprising
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