Less than five percent of the most dangerous chemicals in SyriaÂ’s arsenal have left the country and Damascus will be pressured to move faster, sources close to the worldÂ’s chemical watchdog said Wednesday. Just two shipments of around 16 metric tonnes each of so-called Category 1 chemicals have left SyriaÂ’s port of Lattakia this month as part of an internationally-backed disarmament plan supervised by the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
That means less than five percent of the around 700 tonnes of chemicals that were supposed to have left Syria by December 31 last year have done so, putting the ambitious disarmament project weeks behind schedule.
The sources said an OPCW Executive Council meeting in The Hague on Thursday would try to put pressure on the Syrians and “remind them of their obligations”, ahead of a June 30 deadline for the destruction of all of Syria’s dangerous chemicals.
Syria has declared around 700 tonnes of most-dangerous chemicals, 500 tonnes of less-dangerous precursor chemicals and around 122 tonnes of isopropanol in its arsenal. Almost all the chemicals and precursors, except for isopropanol which is to be destroyed within the war-torn country, are supposed to be removed by February 5. The around 120 tonnes of isopropanol must be destroyed by March 1.
“It’s almost certain that deadline will not be met,” a source close to the matter told AFP.
Syria has claimed that operations to move the chemicals to the port of Lattakia have been slowed by the security situation in the war-torn country and by the weather. The sources noted that the weather in Syria has been much better recently and they “can no longer use that argument.”
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Syria has told the OPCW that it is “making intensive efforts to prepare for, and accelerate, the transportation of chemicals, and that it is currently working on a tentative schedule for completing the transportation of chemicals.”