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Earlier versions of this article misstated the city where the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is headquartered.
Syria has destroyed chemical weapons facilities, international inspectors say
Video: The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced that Syria has met a Nov. 1 deadline for destroying machinery used to produce chemical weapons. By Loveday Morris and Michael Birnbaum, BEIRUT — Syria has destroyed its declared chemical-weapons production facilities, international inspectors said Thursday, marking a major step in the complex task of ridding the country of the weapons of mass destruction.
The declaration came a day before a Nov. 1 deadline as the team overseen by the inspectors hewed to an ambitious schedule for destroying Syria’s entire chemical arsenal by the middle of next year — a far more rapid process than comparable efforts in other countries and one that must be implemented in the middle of a civil war.
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Weapons experts described the declaration as a milestone but warned that hurdles remain in the more challenging work of destroying the toxic agents and their precursor chemicals, some of which is expected to take place overseas. Syria has declared 1,290 tons of chemical agents and precursors, according to the Netherlands-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is tasked with overseeing the destruction process.
Inspectors “confirmed today that the government of the Syrian Arab Republic has completed the functional destruction of critical equipment for all of its declared chemical weapons production facilities and mixing/filling plants, rendering them inoperable,” the OPCW said in a statement.
The process began in September, when Russia brokered an accord under which Syria agreed to surrender its chemical stockpile after the Obama administration threatened military action against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The threat was in response to deadly attacks in August, apparently using sarin gas, on civilians in rebel strongholds outside Damascus.
Destruction of the mixing equipment and unfilled missile warheads began in the first week of October, starting with relatively simple items such as high-speed saws and blowtorches.
“Destruction of the equipment may have been the easy bit,” said Karl Dewey, a proliferation analyst at IHS Jane’s, a defense and security consultancy. “As it stands, the country’s chemical weapons stockpiles remain and need to be destroyed. A host country for this to happen in needs to be found. Transport and safety issues need to be addressed, particularly given the wider security concerns.”
About 1,000 of the 1,290 tons of the declared stockpile, which is in 41 facilities at 23 sites, consists of chemical precursors, according to a report that the OPCW submitted to the U.N. Security Council a week ago. The remainder consists of “category 2” — or weaponized — chemical weapons. The Syrian government has also submitted information on 1,230 unfilled munitions and says it found two cylinders that did not belong to it containing chemical weapons, the report said.
OPCW and European security officials have said they are confident that the Syrian government’s declaration of its stockpile is relatively complete. U.S. security officials, however, have said they are trying to resolve discrepancies between that declaration and Western intelligence estimates of the number of Syrian chemical weapons sites.
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