OPCW executive council receives destruction plan for Syrian Chemicals

As requested by the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Executive Council Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu Tuesday submitted a plan for destroying the Syrian chemical weapons outside of the country, said an OPCW press release Wednesday. The plan aims to meet a deadline set by the Council to destroy Syria's priority chemicals by 31 March 2014 and other mostly commodity chemicals by 30 June 2014. In his opening statement at the Council meeting, the Director-General confirmed that "the major elements of a transportation and destruction plan are in place" and that the mission in Syria "is making progress against heavy odds," including a "massive procurement effort" that has gone into the collection and delivery to Syria of materials and equipment. He credited OPCW States Parties for offering transport, destruction facilities and other material assistance, and for making important financial contributions to the Special Trust Fund. The Director-General cautioned that time schedules have been disrupted by a combination of security concerns, clearance procedures in international transit, and even inclement weather conditions. He said the possibility of some delays cannot be discounted but that the OPCW-UN Joint Mission is working intensively to commence removal and transportation operations, beginning with the removal of the priority chemicals from the territory of Syria at the turn of the year. "It would have been difficult a month ago to predict the availability of the assets that are now in place or will soon be," he concluded in his statement.