All Syria chemical arms ‘placed under seal’
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Syria’s entire declared stock of chemical weapons has been placed under seal, a watchdog said yesterday, as peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi wrapped up a Syria visit to muster support for Geneva talks.
“All stocks of chemical weapons and agents have been placed under seals that are impossible to break,” Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons spokesman Christian Chartier said, adding the seals were “tamper proof.”
“These are 1,000 tons of chemical agents (which can be used to make weapons) and 290 tons of chemical weapons,” Chartier said in The Hague.
OPCW and UN inspectors have until mid-2014 to destroy Syria’s entire chemical arsenal and production facilities under the terms of a US-Russian deal to head off military strikes on President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
“The weapons and agents remain at their respective sites, we’re not yet at the stage of moving them,” Chartier said.
OPCW also said that Syria’s declared chemical arms production equipment had been destroyed ahead of today’s deadline.
Its head of field operations, Jerry Smith, told the BBC his team had “personally observed all the destruction activities.”
The OPCW inspectors had visited all 23 chemical weapons sites but for two in areas considered “too dangerous,” Smith said. “But the contents (of those two) were moved to other sites that we did visit. Therefore we have visited and seen the destruction of all Syria’s declared chemical weapons capability.”
The OPCW statements came as Brahimi held meetings in Damascus with opposition members. He has been travelling the Middle East since mid-October to garner support for proposed peace talks, dubbed Geneva II. He is due to travel back to Beirut today.
The Syrian leg of the tour is the most sensitive, as the veteran Algerian diplomat needs to persuade a wary government and an increasingly divided opposition to attend.
Brahimi on Wednesday held talks with Assad, during which the Syrian president criticized foreign interference in his country.
“The Syrian people are the only ones who have the right to decide on Syria’s future,” state media quoted Assad as telling Brahimi.
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