MOSCOW, February 2 (Sputnik) – The disarmament of Syria’s chemical weapons has been completed and serious issues on their destruction no longer exist, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Monday.
“We believe that [Syria’s] chemical disarmament is completed and no serious issues in regard to its destruction remain,” Gatilov told RIA Novosti in an interview.
The deadline to destroy Syria’s arsenal of more than 1,400 tons of weapons-grade chemicals was repeatedly missed due to the unstable situation in the country.
In January, Syria began dismantling underground bunkers, tunnels and hangars where its chemical weapons were produced and stored.
Syria joined the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) after a sarin gas attack near Damascus killed over 1,000 people in August 2013. The Syrian government and rebel forces traded blame for the attack.