Syria chemical weapons bases' destruction to begin

UN diplomats express worry Damascus has not been fully forthcoming on WMD capabilities

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The destruction of 12 chemical weapons facilities in Syria is expected to start later this month, and the work should be complete by the end of June 2015, UN diplomats said Wednesday.

UN Security Council diplomats who were briefed Wednesday on international efforts to eliminate the chemical weapons program still expressed worries that Syria hasn’t made a full declaration of its chemical weapons capabilities.

“There are still some issues that need to be resolved in that declaration,” British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said, without giving details. In October, council diplomats were startled to be told in a briefing that Syria had declared four chemical weapons facilities it hadn’t mentioned before.

Syria’s UN ambassador, Bashar Ja’afari told reporters, “There is no anymore any Syria chemical program.”

The UN’s mandate in a joint mission with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has ended, but some diplomats want direct reports to the council to continue.

The OPCW, the global chemical weapons watchdog based in The Hague, Netherlands, is overseeing the entire mission, including the planned destruction, but Lyall Grant called for “close monitoring” by the council. Ja’afari appeared to reject that idea, saying any outstanding issues are “purely technical.”

The UN and the OPCW have said all 1,300 tons (1,200 metric tons) of Syria’s declared chemical weapons have been removed, and 97 percent have been destroyed.

The United States has said it is worried that the Islamic State group, which has seized large parts of Syria, and other terrorist groups could get hold of chemical weapons if Syria is hiding any stockpiles.

Diplomats are also waiting to see a report later this month by a separate OPCW fact-finding mission on allegations of the use of chlorine as a chemical weapon during attacks in the Syrian conflict, which is now well into its fourth year.

The council last year found a rare agreement on Syria to approve the plan to eliminate the government’s chemical weapons program. The deal was reached under threat of US airstrikes after images of civilian victims laid out after an attack on a Damascus suburb shocked the world. President Bashar Assad’s government denied involvement and blamed rebel groups.