Syria 'cooperative' on chemical weapons, OPCW chief says
updated 1:22 PM EDT, Wed October 9, 2013
Syria said to be 'cooperative'
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- "Cooperation has been quite constructive," head of the watchdog group says
- Chemical weapons inspectors to visit second site in Syria on Wednesday
- Initial inspections, destruction of production facilities due by November 1
- Kidnapped French reporter, photographer have been held since June 22, officials say
Inspectors visited a
first site earlier this week, where they saw some chemical weapons
equipment destroyed, and are expected to visit more than 20 others over
the coming days, said Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organization
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
"The cooperation has been
quite constructive, and I will say that the Syrian authorities have
been cooperative," Uzumcu told reporters at The Hague on Wednesday.
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His account comes less
than two months after an August 21 chemical attack outside Damascus that
led to U.S. and allied calls for military intervention in Syria's civil
war -- a confrontation that was defused in mid-September, when Damascus
agreed to a U.S.-Russian plan to give up its chemical weapons
stockpile.
A U.N. Security Council
resolution gives Syria until mid-2014 to destroy that arsenal, which the
United States estimated at about 1,000 tons of blister agents and nerve
gas. The Syrians provided an initial declaration of its stockpile and
must submit a plan for destroying the weapons by October 27, Uzumcu
said.
Inspectors must complete
their initial inspections of all Syrian chemical weapons and storage
facilities by November 1 and complete the eradication of production and
chemical mixing facilities, the U.N. resolution states. Uzumcu said
inspectors visited a second site Wednesday.
Inspectors face risks in 'dangerous and volatile' Syria
The timeline is tight and the inspectors face significant challenges,
including having to cross front lines and move through areas controlled
by militants fighting Syria's government. Uzumcu hinted that if the
deadlines are to be met, cooperation from rebels would be key.
"I think the elimination
of those weapons is in the interest of all. Therefore, if we can assure
some cooperation by all parties and if some temporary cease-fires could
be established in order to permit our experts to work in a permissive
environment, I think our targets could be reached," he said.
U.S. officials said at
least 1,400 people died in the August 21 attack, which U.N. inspectors
determined had been carried out with the nerve agent sarin. The
inspectors did not assign blame for the attack, and Syria denied
responsibility, pointing the finger at rebel forces. But Washington and
its allies have said that details of the report point squarely at
government troops.
And there has been some skepticism over whether Syria will give up its entire arsenal.
A defected Syrian brigadier general, Zaher al-Sakat, told CNN's Christiane Amanpour last week
that in addition to four secret locations within Syria, the regime is
transferring chemical weapons to Iraq and Lebanon -- an allegation that
the commander of the opposition Free Syrian Army, Gen. Salim Idriss,
also recently made to Amanpour. Iraq and Lebanon have denied the claims.
U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council on Monday that the current
inspection team of about 35 will be beefed up to about 100. But he said
the inspectors face a "dangerous and volatile" environment, particularly
in urban areas such as Damascus, Homs and Aleppo.
Syrian civil war in photos
"Heavy artillery, air
strikes, mortar barrages and the indiscriminate shelling of civilians
areas are commonplace and battle lines shift quickly," Ban said.
It will be up to the
Syrian government and the United Nations to make sure that inspectors
can get to the rebel-held areas, OPCW official Malik Ellahi said
Wednesday.
Two more French journalists reported kidnapped
Syria's descent into
civil war began in March 2011, when the government of Bashar al-Assad
cracked down on anti-government demonstrations in the wake of that
year's "Arab Spring" revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and other
countries in the region. The United Nations estimated the conflict had
claimed more than 100,000 lives before the August 21 attack.
The war has ground on
while much of the outside world's attention has been focused on the
standoff over chemical weapons, with opposition activists reporting
triple-digit death tolls on a daily basis. Syria's government has
restricted access by international journalists, making it impossible to
verify many of those claims.
France announced
Wednesday that two French journalists had been kidnapped in Syria,
adding to two others whose abductions were reported earlier this year.
The June 22 seizure of reporter Nicolas Henin and freelance photographer
Pierre Torres had been kept confidential at the request of their
families, the Foreign Ministry said.
The two other French
journalists, reporter Didier Francois and photographer Edouard Elias,
have been held in Syria since June 6, the ministry said.
The ministry has not said who is holding the journalists, but said "all means of the state are mobilized" to free them.
Henin was preparing a
report for the Le Point news magazine and the Arte media chain, and
Torres had been expected to cover municipal elections organized for
Raqqah, Syria, the ministry said. Francois and Elias, working for French
radio station Europe1, had been on their way to the northwestern city
of Aleppo when they were captured, the station has said.
CNN's Stephanie Halasz, Joseph Netto, Laura Smith-Spark and Joe Sterling contributed to this report.
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