MOSCOW, April 14 (RIA Novosti) – The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will expend all effort to guarantee shipments of chemical weapons out of Syria are completed on schedule by the middle of this year, OPCW Director General Ahmet Üzümcü said Monday.
“About two-thirds of all the stockpiles have already been removed from Syria, and it is important that the process is this fast. We are trying to meet the mid-2014 deadline. I hope that the success of this mission will pave the way for progress in efforts to resolve the Syrian conflict,” Üzümcü said during a ceremony at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), in which he was awarded an honorary doctorate.
On Monday, the OPCW announced the delivery of the 13th shipment of chemicals to the Syrian seaport of Latakia, signifying the volume of chemical weapons exported has now surpassed two-thirds of the total. The last delivery was made on April 10.
In late February, Syria submitted a new plan to surrender all chemical weapons by April 27. Under a UN Security Council resolution, the final deadline for the complete elimination of Syria’s chemical arsenal is the end of June.
Last week, the Russian battle cruiser Pyotr Velikiy escorted a Danish special transportation ship carrying a batch of chemical weapons. The Russian ship ensured the shipment’s safety on the way from Latakia to a port in Italy. The stockpiles are to be loaded onto a US Navy ship and transported into international waters before being destroyed.
