Thursday, October 31, 2013

Syria meets deadline, renders chemical weapons facilities ‘inoperable’ – OPCW-UN mission

31 October 2013 – Syria’s chemical weapons facilities are “inoperable,” the Joint Mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations overseeing the destruction of the country’s weapons programme confirmed today.
“The Joint Mission is now satisfied that it has verified – and seen destroyed – all of Syria’s declared critical production and mixing/filling equipment,” according to a statement released by the joint OPCW-UN team.
No further inspection activities are currently planned,” it added.

The Mission confirmed that Syria has met the deadline set by the agency to “complete as soon as possible and in any case not later than 1 November 2013, the destruction of chemical weapons production and mixing/filling equipment”.

The Joint OPCW-UN Mission has inspected 21 of the 23 sites declared by Syria, and 39 of the 41 facilities located at those sites.
  • The two remaining sites were not visited due to safety and security concerns, according to the statement.
Damascus declared those sites “abandoned”, the agency said, and the chemical weapons programme items they contained were moved to other declared sites, which were inspected.
Eight of the OPCW inspectors who had participated in the process today returned to The Hague, after nearly a month a Damascus.
OPCW Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü thanked them for their “outstanding service” to the “most challenging mission ever undertaken by this Organisation.”
The next milestone for the Joint Mission will be 15 November, by which time the Nobel Peace Prize-winning chemical weapons watchdog must approve the plan submitted by Damascus detailing the elimination of its chemical weapons stockpile.
The UN Security Council has endorsed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s plan to deploy up to 100 UN and OPCW experts in a multi-phase operation to carry out its resolution on eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons material and equipment, scheduled for completion by 30 June 2014.
The Council passed its resolution after Syria agreed to join the Chemical Weapons Convention following a chemical weapons attack in August that killed hundreds of people in a Damascus suburb, in a conflict that has already killed over 100,000 people and driven some 6.5 million others from their homes since protesters first sought the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad’s Government in March 2011.
un.org
31/10/13
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Video UN: Daily Press Briefing 31/10/13

2 comments:

  1. Russian Foreign Minister says it’s possible to destroy all Syrian chemical weapons by mid-2014...

    The process of eliminating Syrian chemical weapons is progressing well, and it is quite possible that the mission may be completed by mid- 2014, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in an interview with "Bloomberg".

    According to Mr Bogdanov, "it is very important that the Syrian armed opposition complies by the UN Security Council Resolution 2118, and ensure that the experts of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations get full access to all specified locations to carry out their mission of inspecting and destroying the chemical weapons in the country.”

    Bogdanov said that the OPCW and UN experts have managed to visit more than half of the declared sites in less than a month, and have successfully dismantled and destroyed the equipment’s used for the production of chemical weapons in the country.
    Read more: http://indian.ruvr.ru/news/2013_10_31/Russian-Foreign-Minister-Syrian-weapons/
    31/10/13

    ReplyDelete
  2. Medien: Syrische Armee erobert Großstadt Safira und dortiges C-Waffenobjekt zurück....

    Die syrische Regierungsarmee hat bei Gefechten im Norden des Landes die Großstadt Safira unter ihre Kontrolle gebracht. In dieser Stadt, die seit mehr als einem Jahr in der Gewalt der Regimegegner war, befindet sich vermutlich eine C-Waffen-Anlage, wie AP meldet.

    Die Armee hatte vor rund drei Wochen eine Offensive im Raum Safira begonnen. Am Freitag berichteten regionale Medien, dass die Regimegegner aus der Stadt verdrängt worden seien. Die bewaffnete Opposition soll ihren Rückzug bestätigt haben. Safira liegt in der Region, durch die die syrische Armee ihre Kampfverbände in Aleppo versorgt, und ist deshalb strategisch wichtig.

    Nach Angaben der Agentur AP befindet sich in Safira eine der beiden Chemiewaffenanlagen, die die Kontrolleure der Organisation für das Verbot chemischer Waffen (OPCW) bisher nicht inspiziert haben. Die OPCW hat nach eigenen Angaben nur zwei der insgesamt 23 C-Waffen-Stätten in Syrien aus Sicherheitsgründen nicht kontrolliert. Nach Angaben der syrischen Regierung handelt es sich um vernachlässigte Objekte, in denen es seit langem keine Produktionsausrüstung mehr gibt. Am Donnerstag teilte die OPCW mit, dass alle Produktionsstätten für die C-Waffen in Syrien bereits zerstört und alle chemischen Waffen der syrischen Regierung sicher versiegelt seien.



    In Syrien dauern seit März 2011 Kämpfe zwischen Armee und bewaffneten Regierungsgegnern an. Laut UN-Angaben sind bei den Gefechten bereits bis zu 100.000 Menschen, darunter 7.000 Kinder, getötet worden. Die Opposition, aber auch westliche Staaten wollen Assad zum Rücktritt zwingen. Nach Darstellung der syrischen Regierung kämpft die Armee gegen aus dem Ausland unterstützte Terroristen.
    http://de.ria.ru/politics/20131101/267199745.html
    1/11/12

    ReplyDelete

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