WORLD_ Safety Concerns Delay U.N. Chemical Arms Inquiry in Syria

Safety Concerns Delay U.N. Chemical Arms Inquiry in Syria

By RICK GLADSTONE
Published: August 13, 2013


Nearly two weeks after Syria said it would allow United Nations experts to investigate three sites where chemical weapons may have been used in that country’s civil war, their visit has been further delayed because an agreement has yet to be reached with Syria on measures to ensure their safety, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s office reported on Tuesday.

In a statement, the office said Angela Kane, the high representative for disarmament affairs, remained engaged with the Syrian government in the hope of agreeing “as soon as possible” on ways “to ensure the proper, safe and efficient conduct of the mission.”

As soon as that agreement is reached, the statement said, “the mission will depart without delay.”

The statement apparently was issued in response to a raft of queries to Mr. Ban’s office about the status of the panel’s investigation, which is led by Ake Sellstrom, a Swedish scientific expert appointed by Mr. Ban. United Nations officials said on July 31 that Syria had consented to the panel’s visiting three sites, and that the panel would be traveling to Syria as soon as possible.

Pressed about the precise reasons for the delay, and whether Mr. Ban was concerned that the panel’s credibility might be at risk, a spokesman for the secretary general, Eduardo del Buey, told reporters at a regular daily briefing, “The devil is in the details, and the details are being worked out.”

The Syrian government had originally insisted that the panel investigate only one site, Khan al-Assal, near the northern city of Aleppo, where an attack was reported on March 19, but the government later agreed to expand the inquiry to two other locations. Neither Syria nor the United Nations has disclosed the identity of those sites.

United Nations officials have said that Dr. Sellstrom’s panel has received unconfirmed evidence that 13 sites in Syria have been subjected to the use of chemical weapons. His panel’s purpose is to ascertain whether such weapons were used, not who used them.

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and the country’s opposition have accused each other of deploying chemical weapons in the conflict, which is now well into its third year and has left more than 100,000 Syrians dead.

A version of this article appeared in print on August 14, 2013, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: Syria: U.N. Investigation Delayed.




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