Syria Starts Detailing of Chemical Weapons, Watchdog Postpones Meeting

Local Editor

Syria began supplying details of its chemical arsenal to the OPCW arms watchdog Friday.

At the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the UN-backed agency which is to oversee the removal of President Bashar al-Assad's arsenal, a spokeswoman said: "We have received part of the verification and we expect more."

The OPCW'S 41-member Executive Council is due to meet early next week to review Syria's inventory and to agree on implementing last week's US-Russian deal to eliminate the entire arsenal in nine months.

This comes as the world's chemical weapons watchdog postponed Sunday's meeting to discuss a Russia-US plan over Syria's arsenal.
"The meeting of the Executive Council of the OPCW in regard to Syria, scheduled for Sunday has been postponed," the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in a statement Friday.

The organization further added: "We will announce the new date and time in this space as soon as possible."
Diplomatic sources said that a draft text to be discussed at the meeting had not yet been agreed upon by the United States and Russia.

The OPCW has already postponed the meeting several times this week.
"The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has received an initial disclosure from the Syrian government of its chemical weapons program," the organization said in a statement.
The OPCW's Technical Secretariat is now examining the details, it said.
The OPCW is charged with implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria asked to join.

Its Executive Council is made up of ambassadors from different nations with diplomatic representations in The Hague.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team