Syria completes key step toward shedding its toxic arsenal, inspectors say

A chemical weapons expert works at a chemical weapons plant in Syria. The destruction of chemical sites completes a major step in the task of ridding the country of its arsenal.

BEIRUT — Syria has destroyed its equipment for producing chemical weapons and poison gas munitions, completing a major step in the complex task of ridding the country of its toxic arsenal, weapons inspectors said Thursday.

In a statement, the international chemical weapons watchdog group, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said Syria had disabled all of the chemical weapons production and mixing facilities it had declared to inspectors, rendering them inoperable, ahead of the deadline Friday.



The completion of the initial stage of destruction is a significant step in an ambitious timeline that aims to destroy all of Damascus’ chemical weapons, including mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin, by mid-2014.

Syria has submitted a plan for the total destruction of its chemical weapons, which is to be approved next month by the chemical agency’s executive committee.

“Destruction of the equipment may have been the easy bit,” said Karl Dewey, a proliferation analyst at IHS Jane’s, a defense and security consultancy. “As it stands, the country’s chemical weapons stockpiles remain and need to be destroyed. A host country for this to happen in needs to be found. Transport and safety issues need to be addressed, particularly given the wider security concerns.”

About 1,000 of the 1,290 tons of the declared stockpile consists of chemical precursors, according to a report that the chemical agency submitted to the U.N. Security Council a week ago. The remainder consists of “category 2” — or weaponized — chemical weapons.


Weapons inspectors said Thursday that Syria has so far met all of its commitments and deadlines under the Russia-brokered plan to destroy its chemical arsenal.


Assad’s opponents have denounced the accord as a distraction, and they were dismayed that the chemical weapons attack in August that U.S. officials say killed 1,400 men, women and children near Damascus led not to U.S. military intervention, as President Barack Obama initially threatened, but to an agreement that allows Assad’s supporters to portray him as a statesman.

The deal also created a de facto expectation that Assad would remain in office at least until mid-2014, when the elimination of the weapons is supposed to be complete under the agreement, critics say.


The British Foreign Office said in a statement Thursday that while the destruction of chemical facilities was “an important first milestone, it brings no relief to the Syrian people,” since the government continues to use artillery, air power and “siege tactics” against civilians.






Thursday’s announcement in Syria came as fighting raged in the northern Syrian town of Safira, home to a chemical weapons production facility as well as storage sites.

Assad’s troops have been battling rebels in Safira for weeks. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group monitoring the fighting, said there were casualties Thursday on both sides but gave no specifics.

The group also said Thursday that more than 120,000 people now have been killed since the start of the country’s civil war more than 2 ½ years ago.

The observatory, which has been tracking the death toll through a network of activists in Syria, said Friday that 120,296 people have died. Of those, it said, 61,067 were civilians, including 6,365 children.

The group said that 29,954 of those killed were members of Assad’s armed forces, that 18,678 were pro-government fighters, and that 187 are Lebanese Hezbollah militants. Also among the dead were 5,375 opposition fighters, many of them foreigners.

On July 25, the U.N. estimated 100,000 have died in the conflict since March 2011. It has not updated that figure since.

The New York Times,

The Associated Press,

The Washington Post

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