WASHINGTON, January 30 (RIA Novosti) – US officials said Thursday that they are “concerned” about delays by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government in handing over its chemical weapons to be destroyed under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States.
“It is the Assad regime’s responsibility to transport those chemicals safely to facilitate removal. We expect them to meet their obligation to do so,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One.
The US ambassador to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is tasked with overseeing the destruction process, said Thursday that Syria’s efforts to move its chemical stockpile to the port of Latakia have “seriously languished and stalled.”
So far the Syrian government has removed only 4 percent of its most dangerous chemicals, including nerve agents such as mustard gas, and “roughly the same small percentage” of its declared toxic materials that can be used to make chemical weapons, Ambassador Robert P. Mikulak said.
“The United States is deeply concerned about the failure of the Government of Syria to transport to Latakia all of the chemical agent and precursors as mandated by OPCW Executive Council decisions,” Mikulak said in a statement to the Hague-based organization.
Under a deal brokered by Moscow and Washington, Syria agreed in September to destroy its chemical weapons by mid-2014. The agreement to eradicate the stockpile allowed the Syrian government to stave off a threatened US air strike.
Syria has said that the original deadline to remove the priority one stockpiles, December 31, was missed because of security concerns in the Middle Eastern country, technical issues and poor weather conditions.
Mikulak on Thursday dismissed those claims as evidence of a "bargaining mentality" rather than true concerns about security.
A February 5 deadline for Syria to hand over precursor materials that can be used to make chemical weapons is set to be missed as well, meaning “the situation will soon be compounded,” Mikulak said.
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also expressed concern about the delays during a visit to Poland on Thursday, adding that he had discussed the matter in a telephone call with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Wednesday.
Hagel said he asked his Russian counterpart to "do what he could to influence the Syrian government to comply with the agreement that has been made" for destroying its chemical stockpile, Reuters reported.
