Syria hands over chemical weapons inventory on time, says watchdog

Syria has completed the handover of an inventory of its chemical arsenal by a Saturday deadline as part of a deal that headed off military strikes, the world’s chemical weapons watchdog said.

The “OPCW has confirmed that it has received the expected disclosure from the Syrian government regarding its chemical weapons programme,” the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in an email received by AFP.

“The Technical Secretariat is currently reviewing the information received,” it added.

The OPCW has postponed a meeting of its Executive Council set for Sunday which had been due to discuss how to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons programme.

The US-Russian disarmament agreement, worked out as Washington threatened military action in response to an August 21 chemical weapons attack outside Damascus, requires Syria to hand over the whole of its arsenal which is to be destroyed by mid-next year.

UN diplomats are trying to thrash out a resolution to ensure Syrian compliance with the deal, but they first need the document laying out what US Secretary of State John Kerry called the “rules and regulations” of the disarmament to be agreed by the OPCW.