Syria chemical weapons facilities 'destroyed'
All declared equipment and sites for producing chemical
weapons rendered unusable, international watchdog OPCW says.
The OPCW is satisfied
it has seen destroyed all declared critical production equipment from 21 sites
[Reuters]
Syria has destroyed all of its declared chemical weapons
production and mixing facilities, meeting a major deadline in an ambitious
disarmament programme, the international chemical weapons watchdog said in a
document seen by Reuters news agency.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
(OPCW) said in the document its teams had inspected 21 out of 23 chemical
weapons sites across the country.
The other two were too dangerous to inspect, but the
chemical equipment had already been moved to other sites which experts had
visited, it said.
"The OPCW is satisfied it has verified, and seen
destroyed, all declared critical production, mixing, filling equipment from all
23 sites," the document said.
Al Jazeera's Omar Al Saleh, reporting from Istanbul, said
"by November 1, Syria will no longer have the capacity to make new
chemical weapons, bringing an end to phase one and phase two".
"Phase three will last to June 2014 and will involve
United Nations mission support to monitor all destruction of 1,000 tonnes of
chemical weapons. The UN/OPCW has no mandate to destroy them so a UN member
state will have to provide technical and operational support.
"But also, we have to be a bit suspicious about the
second phase as this is what Syria has declared, and see that other states will
agree with Syria on the amount it said it has. Other countries may have their
own intelligence," our correspondent said.
Under a Russian-American arranged deal, Damascus agreed to
destroy all its chemical weapons after Washington threatened to use force in
response to the killing of hundreds of people in a sarin attack on the
outskirts of Damascus on August 21.
The United States and its allies blamed Assad's forces for
the attack and several earlier incidents. The Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
has rejected the charge, blaming rebel brigades.
Under the disarmament timetable, Syria was due to render
unusable all production and chemical weapons filling facilities by November 1 -
a target it has now met.
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