Russia: Syria to remove chemicals by March 1

Syria plans to send a "large shipment" of chemical agents out of the country this month and wrap up the arms removal by March 1, Syrian ally Russia said. "Literally yesterday the Syrians announced that the removal of a large shipment of chemical substances is planned in February," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said in an interview with state news agency RIA Novosti. "They are ready to complete this process by March 1," he said. His comments followed U.S. criticism last week of the Assad regime's delays in complying with the timetable for eliminating Syria's chemical weapons. The Obama administration accused the regime Thursday of deliberately stalling the removal of about 1,200 tons of chemical material -- half of it considered especially dangerous -- to gain bargaining leverage. Just 4 percent of Syria's 530 metric tons of so-called Priority One chemicals -- the most dangerous -- have been removed, when they were supposed to be completely removed by a Dec. 31 deadline, State Department representative Robert Mikulak told the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, Netherlands. About the same percentage of less-deadly Priority Two chemicals have also been removed, he said. The Assad regime blamed the delays on security concerns in the areas through which the chemicals would be transported. They are to be transported in convoys from 12 storage sites to the Mediterranean port of Latakia in western Syria, some 200 miles northwest of Damascus. From there, they are to be loaded onto Danish and Norwegian ships. Mikulak told the OPCW the Obama administration rejected those claims. "These demands are without merit, and display a 'bargaining mentality' rather than a security mentality," he said. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in Warsaw, Poland, Thursday he made a personal appeal to his Russian counterpart to use Moscow's influence to bring the Assad regime back into compliance. OPCW Director General Ahmet Uzumcu, whose agency is collaborating with the United Nations to oversee the destruction of the Syrian stockpile, said Friday, "The need for the process to pick up pace is obvious." Gatilov told RIA the Syrian regime's explanations for the missed deadlines were legitimate. He said the Syrian civil war created enormous security problems in transporting the chemicals to Latakia. "There really are difficulties linked to the need to provide security for this operation," he told the news agency. Syrian President Bashar Assad promised in a September accord put together by the United States and Russia to destroy its entire chemical program by June 30. Despite agreeing to a timetable, the regime missed the Dec. 31 deadline to export the most dangerous chemicals and missed a second deadline Wednesday to export all the chemicals.