Progress made on destruction of chemical weapons outside Syria (UNSC president)

There has been "good progress" on the destruction of Syria's chemical weapon materials outside the country, UK's Permanent Representative to the UN Mark Lyall Grant, who holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council for August, told reporters here on Tuesday.

Lyall Grant made the remarks after a briefing to the 15-member Council behind closed doors via video teleconference by Sigrid Kaag, special coordinator for the United Nations - Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Joint Mission.

Kaag reported to the Council on the work that has been taking place to destroy Syria's chemical weapons, which have now been completely taken out of that country.

"The United States briefed that they had completed about 60 percent now of treatment of Priority A chemicals on the ship, the Cape Ray and once that treatment is completed, then the effluent will be sent to Germany and Finland for final disposal," said Lyall Grant.

The UK would complete its destruction of the B precursors and hydrochloric acids in the course of this week. So, good progress on the destruction of chemicals outside Syria, he added.

The Security Council was also told about a meeting in Beirut on Tuesday to work out the modalities for the destruction of the 12 remaining declared production facilities that would take about six months to complete, according to the president.

Lyall Grant added that there would be a further visit by the OPCW team in September to the Syrian capital, Damascus.

On the future of the Joint Mission, he said, there was a "very clear majority view" that Syria remained a special case and the outstanding issues were such that the mission should continue for the time being.

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The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution in September last year to rid the war-torn Middle East country of its chemical weapons. Under the resolution, the OPCW was mandated to oversee the elimination of Syria's chemical weapons materials.

The removal of the most critical material for destruction began in early January. As per the decisions taken by the Security Council and the OPCW Executive Council, the full arsenal of Syria's chemical weapons should be destroyed by June 30, 2014.

On June 23, the Joint Mission announced that Syria has removed all of its declared chemical arsenal from its territory.
Sources: Xinhua -globaltimes.cn
6/8/14
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Related:

• All toxic chemicals removed from Syria now at destruction sites (OPCW)

• US ship begins neutralizing Syrian chemical weapons 

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