UN: Chemical weapons experts to travel to Syria within days

The experts of chemical weapons tasked with investigating the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria are expected to travel to Damascus as soon as the preparations, in both New York and The Hague, for the mission are completed "within days," the UN announced in a statement on Tuesday. "It is anticipated that these preparations will be completed within the next days, following which the date of the Mission in Syria will be announced, " the statement said. The Head of the Mission, Ake Sellstrom, and his ten-member team have reassembled in The Hague, where they are now completing their preparations prior to their departure to Syria, it added. At the same time, it noted, UN Headquarters is working to "finalize the legal and logistical modalities for the investigations on the basis of the agreement reached last month with Syria." A UN official refused to say whether a Memorandum Of Understanding between the UN and the Syrian government has been signed when Sellstrom and the Head of the Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane visited Syria last month. During their visit to Damascus, both UN officials managed to twist the government's arm into accepting the investigation to take place in three sites, and not just in Khan Al-Assal as Damascus originally insisted. The other two sites are presumably in Homs and near Damascus. The government and the opposition traded accusations accusing each other of using the banned weapons against civilians and government forces. In the meantime, the ambassadors of the US, UK and France met as a group with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to inquire about the "latest arrangements for the investigation and the next steps," according to a Senior UN diplomat.