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Syria submits report on destruction of chemical weapons

February 11, 2014 at 11:05 am

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has reported that the Syrian regime has submitted a preliminary report on the destruction of its chemical arsenal within the time specified by the international agreement.


“On 24 October, the Syrian Arab Republic submitted a formal initial report on the destruction of its chemical weapons programme,” said the OPCW. The organisation noted that the report included a general plan for the destruction of the chemical weapons and that it has been submitted to the OPCW Executive Council.

The report, said the organisation, will allow the development of plans aiming for a systematic and complete destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons. It added that the government in Damascus has also handed over a report on the activity of those facilities that are not covered by the treaty which bans the use of chemical weapons, which may be subject to inspection by the international community.

The director of the public relations and media department in the OPCW, Michael Lokhin, expressed his hope earlier that the Syrian authorities wouldn’t be capable of producing chemical weapons as from November 1. He told Western journalists, “We are confident that we will succeed in achieving this before November 1, as the act of destroying equipment is actually taking place in all the Syrian facilities and buildings except one.”

Stressing that this means that Syria will not have the potential to produce either chemical weapons or devices for mixing and packaging toxic substances afterwards, he said, “We are being very exact in talking about this and hope that this is going to be the situation starting from November 1.”