adminDAMASCUS – International inspectors were yesterday gearing up to disable the chemical weapons programme in war-hit Syria after reporting “encouraging” progress in a day of meetings with regime officials.The Syrian regime and its armed opponents have both been accused of carrying out numerous atrocities in the 30-month conflict, which began as a popular uprising and has since snowballed into a full-blown war that has killed 115 000.
President Bashar al-Assad again denied having perpetrated 21 August chemical attacks on the outskirts of Damascus that killed hundreds and prompted Washington to threaten military action.
Syria’s chemical arsenal – to be destroyed under a UN resolution – were in the hands of “special forces” who were the only ones capable of using them, Assad said.
“Preparing these weapons is a complex technical operation . . . and a special procedure is necessary to use them which requires a central order from the army chief of staff. As a result it is impossible that they were used,” he said.
A team of inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations has been tasked with implementing the resolution to destroy the banned arsenal by mid-2014. – AFP.
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