Syria Probe Wraps up Ahead of OPCW Mission: Inspectors Trust Damascus

Local Editor

UN experts wrapped up their investigation of seven alleged chemical attacks in Syria Monday as disarmament teams prepared to visit the country to inspect its arsenal of chemical weapons.

This comes as Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has insisted his country will comply with a UN resolution over chemical weapons.

The UN's six-person team of chemical weapons experts, which is on its second mission to Syria to investigate the alleged attacks, is to leave the country on Monday.

The team said it hopes to present a final report on the alleged attacks by late October, following an interim report submitted this month which confirmed the use of the nerve agent sarin in an August 21 attack in the suburbs of Damascus.
On Tuesday, a team of around 20 inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is due in Damascus to begin inspecting Syria's arsenal ahead of its destruction.
"At this point, we have absolutely no reason to doubt the information provided by the Syrian regime," an OPCW official told journalists at in The Hague on Sunday.
Meanwhile, OPCW said there is no reason to doubt the information provided so far by Syria about its chemical weapons.

An OPCW official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters in The Hague that at this point "we have absolutely no reason to doubt the information" provided by the Syrian government.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem meanwhile insisted there could be no talk of al-Assad's departure -- a demand of both Western governments and the Syrian opposition.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR meanwhile said it had dispatched 44 containers of aid from Dubai to Syria to assist displaced people in difficult-to-reach areas.
The delivery, containing sleeping mats, tarpaulins and other items, is UNHCR's largest such shipment from Dubai this year and is expected to reach Syria in about a month.

Later on Monday the UN Security Council was to launch talks on a statement about the humanitarian crisis in Syria which could include a controversial call to allow cross-border missions, diplomats said.
OPCW experts are to visit all production and storage sites that Syria has identified. Damascus is also due to provide further details by Friday.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team