SyriaOPCW says Syria has completed handover of chemical weapons, but some are skeptical
Syria handed over the remaining 100 tons of toxic material to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) last Monday. The final consignment, publicly delayed, consisted of about 8 percent of the total 1,300 tons that the country is believed to have possessed. Despite the celebratory mood, many in the West look at the Syrian and OPCW announcements skeptically due to conflicting information.
Syria handed over the remaining 100 tons of toxic material to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) last Monday. The final consignment, publicly delayed, consisted of about 8 percent of the total 1,300 tons that the country is believed to have possessed.
India Everyday reports that this move follows after a September 2013 agreement between Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the United States and Russia, after the United States had threatened airstrikes against Syrian installations following a much publicized and deadly sarin gas attack near the capital of Damascus in August 2013.
The material will be destroyed at sea. OPCW chief Ahmet Uzumcu said at a Hague news conference, “A major landmark in this mission has been reached today.” Syria’s envoy to the United Nations had also alerted Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that Syria had fulfilled its obligations.
Despite the celebratory mood, many in the West look at the Syrian and OPCW announcements skeptically due to conflicting information. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry responded by saying, “There are still some issues that need to be addressed and we are not going to stop until those have been addressed. We remain deeply concerned about reports of systematic use of chlorine gas in opposition areas.” British Foreign Secretary William Hague echoed this sentiment by adding that “The regime’s history of lies and obstruction make it impossible to take its claims at face value, and we support the OPCW in its efforts to press Syria for full disclosure.”
Despite this, Uzumcu promised to continue an investigation into those alleged attacks and continue to review the list of suspected armaments, “All declared weapons have left Syria,” he said, “(but) clearly we cannot say as the secretariat of the OPCW that Syria doesn’t possess any chemical weapons anymore.”India Everyday adds that OPCW investigators “supported the view of Western governments that chlorine-like chemicals not declared to the watchdog have been used in Syria.”
Additionally, a process to destroy twelve production sites for chemical weapons, and rumored smuggling tunnels, is scheduled to be underway within the next three months.
The civil war within Syria has reached its fourth year, with over 160,000 deaths, and the displacement of half of the country’s twenty-two million people.
