By Anthony Deutsch
AMSTERDAM Wed Feb 5, 2014 5:01pm EST
REUTERS
19 COOMENTS
(Reuters) - Syria on Wednesday missed a deadline to hand over all the toxic materials it declared to the world's chemical weapons watchdog, putting the program several weeks behind schedule and jeopardizing a final June 30 deadline.
At the same time, opposition activists say the Syrian air force is attacking the country's biggest city, Aleppo, with barrel bombs, forcing many to flee. Turkey was turning away some of those refugees because camps were now full.
Under a deal reached in October between Russia and the United States, which helped avert a U.S.-led missile strike against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, Syria agreed to give up its entire stockpile of chemical weapons by February 5.
Russia said on Tuesday its ally Damascus would ship more chemicals soon, but Western diplomats said they saw no indications that further shipments were pending.
Syria has said it would submit a handover timetable to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, but gave no indication of when that would happen.
There have been no shipments since January 27 and the latest deadline was missed, said OPCW spokesman Michael Luhan. "It's a status quo until we get this plan."
In Washington, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the United States was "absolutely not" concerned that the chemical weapons agreement was falling apart, but added that "Syria must abide by its commitments."
"I would note that Russia has said it expects the Assad regime to deliver a substantial portion of its chemical weapons stockpile in the relatively near future. And we obviously believe that's very important," Carney said.
Carney added that Russia "obviously has a great deal at stake" in the Syrian government fulfilling its responsibilities under the U.S.-Russian agreement.
Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Meqdad said on Wednesday Syria was trying to meet its obligations.
"Syria is proceeding with all determination, strength and credibility to fully implement the agreements with the U.N.-OPCW," the Syrian national news agency SANA quoted him as saying.
In an apparent reference to clearing a road through disputed territory to the northern port of Latakia for shipment abroad, Meqdad said "there can be no leniency at all when it comes to transporting chemical weapons out of Syria."
British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was worried that the chemical weapons handover was behind schedule, and British diplomats said they planned to raise the matter at the United Nations Security Council on Thursday.
"Britain will continue to put pressure on all parties to make sure the chemical weapons are produced and destroyed," Cameron told parliament in London.
MUSTARD GAS
Syria had already missed a December 31 deadline to relinquish the most poisonous chemical agents, including mustard gas and sarin precursors.
So far, Syria has transported slightly more than 4 percent of the 1,300 metric tons it reported to the OPCW. The two small shipments of chemicals are being stored on a Danish vessel in the Mediterranean.
Under the U.S.-Russian agreement, prompted by a sarin gas attack near Damascus that killed hundreds of civilians, Syria has until June 30, or another five months, to completely eliminate its chemical weapons program.
Washington blames the poison attacks on the Assad government and threatened military retaliation.
Damascus has blamed the delay on security problems and the threat of attacks by rebels on road transports to the northern port of Latakia. It has requested additional armor and communications equipment.
But the United States and the United Nations, which is jointly overseeing the destruction program with the OPCW, said last week Syria has all the equipment it needs to carry out the operation and should proceed as quickly as possible.
The next major deadline is March 31, by when the most toxic substances are supposed to be destroyed outside Syria, on a special U.S. cargo vessel, the Cape Ray.
On Thursday, the head of the joint mission, Sigrid Kaag, will brief the United Nations about the operation in New York.
SECURITY COUNCIL
With the U.N. Security Council divided over imposing sanctions against Syria, some diplomats believe the threat of force may be the only way to get Assad to relinquish his weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. official said the use of force has never been taken off the table, but French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius went a step further in recent comments.
He told Europe 1: "It's not on the agenda, but when you have a government ... when a government makes commitments before the international community, it must respect those commitments."
Asked if that was a warning, he replied: "Yes."
On the border with Turkey, Syrian families without passports were being turned away because a refugee influx caused by intensified "barrel bombing" in Aleppo filled up its camps, the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) said.
One of the Syrian opposition's most vocal allies, Turkey has taken in hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.
But resources have been stretched after Assad's forces intensified attacks on Aleppo, dropping barrel bombs and slowly winning ground against rebels weakened by weeks of infighting.
"Camps in Kilis are at full capacity unfortunately, but there are free spaces in our other camps," a press officer for Turkey's state AFAD disaster agency said.
Ankara is sticking to its "open border" policy and refugees will be accepted "following necessary security controls", the press officer said.
A camp inside Syria near the Syrian Bab al-Salam border crossing, 50 km (30 miles) north of Aleppo, is also full, IHH's Kilis media officer said, adding that numbers there had risen to 25,000 from 14,000 in the last week.
Turkish police at Oncupinar border post across from Bab al-Salam said restrictions applied to those without passports, but that the crossing was open, with no big crowd at the gate.
The use of barrel bombs - oil drums or cylinders packed with explosives and metal fragments dropped from helicopters - was condemned by Syria's opposition delegation and its Western backers at last month's peace talks in Switzerland.
Further east, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that for the last 18 days Turkish authorities have prevented more than 2,000 refugees, including women and children, from crossing into Turkey after fleeing the city of Raqqa.
(Additional reporting by Dasha Afanasieva and Ece Toksabay in Istanbul, Will Dunham in Washington, Andrew Osborn in London, and Dominic Evans and Stephen Kalin in Beirut; Editing by Anna Willard; Giles Elgood and Tom Brown)
*** 19 COMMENTS
_ kenradke11 wrote: These excuses just drag on about the removal of the Chemicals because Assad is not taking the US seriously!
Feb 05, 2014 6:03am EST -- Report as abuse
_ Saristas wrote: @kenradke11 and why should he? He has strong international bad-guy backing, US did not dare to touch him once they will not dare touch him again.
Feb 05, 2014 6:21am EST -- Report as abuse
_ kenradke11 wrote: Saristas wrote: Well I can tell you that the US was ready to attack with missiles at one point until a certain Party basically make a vague comment about Syria getting rid of it’s chemical weapons to avoid a confrontation and of course Russia thought it a great idea but still left Assad unpunished for murdering hundreds of his own people daily. Assad will pay for his crimes one day soon!
Feb 05, 2014 7:00am EST -- Report as abuse
_ Saristas wrote: @kendrake11 This might sound like a conspiracy but: At first it was speculated that the rebels used chemical weapons to get USA involved, since Obama said that he would attack if chemical weapons were used. This speculation delayed Obamas’ attack until further investigation and while that was happening Putin came up with a peaceful solution and made Obama look bad and himself look like a peace-keeper. Either way, it was a play by either those at US who wanted more control and an armed conflict in Syria, or by Russia to make US look weak. I doubt it was either the rebels or Assad who were responsible.
Feb 05, 2014 7:15am EST -- Report as abuse
_ Art16 wrote: What a farce! Did anyone expect otherwise? There never was any genuine credibility to any of it with He-who-would-be-Czar(Ras)Putin mixed up in it. It is all being orchestrated by the Russians whose stake is their Mediterranean naval base on the shore of Syria, and nothing else.
Feb 05, 2014 8:11am EST -- Report as abuse
_ UrDrighten wrote: Syria has been asking for more security support to protect shipments from rebels, but hasn’t been getting any. This article doesn’t place the blame for the delays on the parties responsible: US, UK, Germany, etc. And all of this “Down with the ‘evil’ Assad” is just highly-compensated Zionist trolling that only ignorant Republicans believe anymore!
Feb 05, 2014 8:36am EST -- Report as abuse
_ UrDrighten wrote: Art16 ~ The Gazprom pipeline that feeds Russian gas to Europe goes through Syria. Saudi Arabia wants to build a pipeline through Syria that will bring Arab gas to Europe to replace, if possible, Gazprom. On top of that, most Syrians do not want to replace their secular socialist state with a fundamentalist Sharia Saudi-puppet-US-toady state. That would be bad for Russian business as well as Syrian. When Obama says “We” want Assad to go, he’s referring to himself and his wealthy petro-imperialist masters. You can fit the Zionist masters into “We” the way that Jello fills in over fruit cocktail…
Feb 05, 2014 8:42am EST -- Report as abuse
_ meowxl wrote: @kenradke11; Stop being a parrot for the mainstream media. Turn of your tv, and start investigating things by using the critical thinking capacity of your own brain! Than share your opinion. This whole thing has nothing to do with Chemical weapons and everything with money, oil and geopolitics.
Feb 05, 2014 8:57am EST -- Report as abuse
_ ralphos wrote: One second after I would have attacked.
Feb 05, 2014 11:13am EST -- Report as abuse
_ ralphos wrote: We would use chemicals on our own people to if it helped in the war on terror. Were no different than anyone else. There will be no courts as long as were the winners. I was just doing my job holds up. But your punishment will be sure and swift the day were the loser.
Feb 05, 2014 11:20am EST -- Report as abuse
_ JackHerer wrote: @meowxl – are you seriously suggesting that all the mainstream westerns media channels are part of a big conspiracy, but the word of Assad and Putin is gospel? Can’t you conspiracy loons go back to arguing if we landed on the moon or not? That way you aren’t helping a dictator commit terrible atrocities. Don’t you care that the UN today presented evidence of Assad’s forces raping children? Does it not bother you that you are helping these monsters?
Feb 05, 2014 12:20pm EST -- Report as abuse
_ JackHerer wrote: @UrDrighten – do you not have a niggling feeling at the back of your mind that you are going to hell for defending and helping Assad? Because you should. How can you live with yourself when you are actively helping child rapists? Or are the UN all liars in your Zionist conspiracy laden head?
Feb 05, 2014 12:23pm EST -- Report as abuse
_ Fromkin wrote: Chemical weapons plot(by Israel and Saud Arabia) in Goutha last year was meant to give the US a pretext to attack Damscus and cripple its resistance ability which has so far surprised western military experts. War by proxy using Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel has failed. The US is looking for ways to take the matters into its own hands. There is no reason to resort to deadlines and ultimatums. On the battlefield Western and Arab supported terrorists are performing badly. Despites all the weapons and training by western special forces in Turkey and Jordan, Jihadists are being destroyed by the Syrian army. That explains why the US is resorting to threats and ultimatums. The chemical weapons ploy is designed to give the US a pretext to bomb Damascus and help jihadists break into Syrian army’s defense lines protecting Damascus which have been impenetrable by the Jihadists so far. Israel tried to do it a couple of times pretending that it was attacking Hezbollah weapons.
Feb 05, 2014 12:37pm EST -- Report as abuse
_ JackHerer wrote: Why doesn’t human compassion ever enter the equation for you conspiracy nut jobs? Are you seriously that detached from reality in your mistrusting minds?
Feb 05, 2014 1:06pm EST -- Report as abuse
_ umkomazi wrote: So what…no worse than the Fed not delivering Germany’s gold…the most likely reason being that the Fed no longer holds the gold & has sold it a multitude of times!
Feb 05, 2014 1:32pm EST -- Report as abuse
_ umkomazi wrote: Why isn’t the US asking its chums in Al qaeda to hand over its chemical weapons? Or isn’t that a convenient fit with the US agenda to remove Assad and ease the way for a islamic dictatorship in Syria??
Feb 05, 2014 1:34pm EST -- Report as abuse
_ cirrus7 wrote: If President Obama has the nerve “to spoil the party” he needs to gono EV and condemn the Warmonger Putin for sending Assad the munitions and the helicopter parts that allow children to be blown up and incinerated in Aleppo. Yes Obama is shipping a few crates of old rifles to the patriotic heroes the FSA, while Putin is frantically sending packed cargo planes 24/7 along with ships loaded with bombs. The bombing of Daraya was caught on video last week – the peaceniks really think “they stopped a war” in September – go picnic in Daraya then!
Feb 05, 2014 2:40pm EST -- Report as abuse
_ Slammy wrote: It took the US about 10 years to destroy its chemical arsenal and this was done mostly one site. It never made sense that a 1 year deadline would work in Syria without serious risks in transporting. I say this assuming the country was not in the middle of a fight with a few armed gangs who seems to be doing awfully well against a standing national army. That said, this government agreed to it. Dummies. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Can we have a discussion on when it will be ok to bomb?
Feb 05, 2014 3:36pm EST -- Report as abuse
_ UrDrighten wrote: @JackHerer ~ No, I do not have any suspicions that I might “go to Hell” for defending a secular socialist leader (and nation) against Saudi indoctrinated/trained/financed terrorists who want to take over Syria to turn it into another client state of the Saudi-Islamist/Petro-imperialist junta that has turned the world into such a violent place.
Children on both sides of a war get hurt. It’s a tragedy that can only be avoided by seeking peace. That’s why the Syrian government is urging women and children to evacuate Homs. The children who were killed by the “nerve gas” were done in – and photographed – by the rebels. The publicity shots and the timing of the “attack” were obviously staged. That is why Russia was comfortable shoving John Kerry’s foot further into his mouth. Putin knew that Assad didn’t do it.
Both sides are abusing children. If you feel morally justified in supporting the child-raping Islamist terrorists, then I am just as morally justified in supporting the child-raping Syrian secular socialist government!
Zionists would love to have Saudi puppets taking out the Shi’ites in Syria. It would help create a pincer movement to take out Shi’ites in Lebanon. And Saudi Arabia gets both control over the oil fields and even more Muslims forced to submit to Wahhabi Islam.
Zionist interests? Like honey poured over baklava…
Feb 05, 2014 6:36pm EST -- Report as abuse
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