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UN EXPERTS HAVE wrapped up their investigation of seven alleged chemical attacks in Syria as disarmament teams prepare to visit the country to inspect its arsenal of banned weapons.
The six-person team of chemical weapons experts, which is on its second mission to Syria to investigate alleged attacks, is scheduled to leave the country today.
The team hopes to present the final report on the alleged attacks by late October, following an interim report submitted this month which confirmed the use of the nerve agent sarin in an attack in the suburbs of Damascus on 21 August.
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
A separate team of around 20 inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is due in Damascus tomorrow to begin inspecting Syria’s arsenal ahead of its destruction. They will visit all production and storage sites that Syria has identified, with details of more locations to be provided by Friday.
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has insisted his country will comply with a UN resolution under which his regime must turn over its chemical weapons for destruction.
In his first comments since the resolution was passed on Friday, Assad told Italy’s Rai News 24 on Sunday that his regime “will comply.”
“Of course we will comply with it, and history proves that we have always honoured all treaties we have signed.”
Assad also said warming relations between the United States and Syria’s ally Iran could benefit Damascus and the region, “so long as the United States is honest”, but said that most European countries “are unable” to play a role in the much-delayed peace conference on Syria which is now being planned for mid-November in Geneva.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon pressed for the conference during his first meeting Saturday with Syria’s opposition National Coalition chief Ahmad Jarba, who said he was ready to send a delegation to the meeting, a UN spokesman said.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR meanwhile said it had dispatched 44 containers of aid, containing sleeping mats, tarpaulins and other items, from Dubai to Syria to assist displaced people in difficult-to-reach areas. It is the largest such shipment from Dubai this year and is expected to reach Syria in about a month.
Violence on the ground has continued, with at least 16 people, including 10 students, killed when a regime air raid hit a high school in the northern rebel-held city of Raqa.
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b better if he’d ship it to the US! so the states, russia and china are essentially the only countries ALLOWED have chemical weapons….cause their leaders are all sane, aren’t they!!!
Fiona, the US and Russia are in the process of destroying their chemical weapons. Do some research and educate yourself, please.
They shouldn’t of had them in the first place Declan
Re Fiona
Don’t forget Israel.
Chop, hindsight is 20/20.
Assad could send all that gunk to Iran in under 6 hours drive, not claiming that he would, just that he could.
Or maybe Hizbullah could mind it for him? No rules says they can’t have such gunk.
what map are you looking at that tells you it takes 6 hours to drive from Syria THROUGH IRAQ to Iran? is it the same map sarah palin is looking at?
Tsk tsk 532 km, 6 hours 56 mins. Not very bright are you Eamonn, stick to sneering at which you seemto be highly skilled.
please give details of this route. its just another conspiracy theory, kinda like the one bush was shoveling down our throats.
if you had any sense you would say that the CW are being FLOWN from syria to iran, as opposed to being driven.
The member of the UN chemical weapons team looks pretty stylish.
He’s suave
just back from a camel safari in saudi arabia
have your say