Ban welcomes continuing progress to rid Syria of chemical weapons

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday welcomed the "continuing progress" in the international effort to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons programme by mid 2014, his press office said in a statement. "The Secretary General once more commends the Special Coordinator and her team for their steadfast work in challenging circumstances," the statement said. Sigrid Kaag, the Special Coordinator of the Joint Mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations, met earlier in the day with Ban to inform him that "further progress" has been made towards the removal and eliminations of the banned weapons from Syria. A first quantity of priority chemical materials was moved from two sites to the port of Lattakia for verification and was then loaded onto a Danish cargo ship earlier today, she had said.