OPCW Adopts Plan to Destroy Chemical Weapons in Syria

MOSCOW- The world’s chemical watchdog on Friday adopted a final roadmap for eliminating chemical weapons in Syria by mid-2014, hours before a deadline expired, a spokesman said.

“The plan is adopted,” Christian Chartier, a spokesman for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said after a meeting of its 41-member Executive Council in The Hague.

The talks at OPCW headquarters in The Hague broke off twice before agreement was reached, as delegates thrashed out the final draft.

A team of UN-OPCW inspectors has been on the ground since October checking Syria’s weapons and facilities.

Destruction of declared chemical weapons production facilities was completed last month and all chemicals and precursors placed under seal, the OPCW said last month ahead of a November 1 deadline backed by a UN Security Council resolution.

Sigrid Kaag, the joint OPCW-UN mission coordinator, told Friday’s OPCW meeting: “We are keen finish the work by June 30, 2014,” pointing out that inspectors are working in critical circumstances and in “an extreme security situation”. Her statement included no details about the plan of eliminating chemical weapons in Syria.

H. Mustafa