Most of Syria’s Toxins Said ‘Unweaponized’, Easily Be Destroyed

Local Editor

U.S. and Russian officials now believe that the vast majority of Syria’s nerve agent stockpile consists of “unweaponized” liquid precursors that could be neutralized relatively quickly, the American daily Washington Post reported Friday. The newspaper stated that “a confidential assessment by the United States and Russia also concludes that Syria’s entire arsenal could be destroyed in about nine months, assuming that Syrian officials honor promises to cede control of the chemical assets to international inspectors, according to two people briefed on the analysis.” “The insights into Syria’s arsenal have been bolstered further by the Damascus government’s own accounting, which lists the types of chemical agents and delivery systems it possesses, and was presented Saturday to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague,” the Washington Post said, adding that U.S. officials who have reviewed the Syrian inventory, which has not been publicly released, “found it quite good.” White House officials said that U.S. and Russian officials were mostly in agreement on the nature of Syria’s chemical arsenal, and told experts that Syria has more than one thousand chemical ton, including 300 tons of Mustard gas. Other agents are liquid precursors used to make toxic gases, primarily the sarin gas. The U.S. daily made it clear that “if U.N. inspection teams can remove even one of the sarin precursors, they can all but eliminate the ability of Syria and extremist groups to produce toxic gases. The report also revealed that the U.S. and Russian governments differed on where the physical destruction of sarin and other toxins should take place. The Obama administration prefers to remove all chemical weapons from Syria as quickly as possible, while Russia wants the weapons destroyed on Syrian soil.

Source: Newspapers 27-09-2013 – 15:44 Last updated 27-09-2013 – 15:44