LONDON — International chemical weapons inspectors reported further progress on Thursday in eliminating Syria’s stockpile, saying they had verified the destruction of 22 of the 23 sites that the Syrian government declared had been used for the production and mixing of the banned munitions.
The inspectors, deployed in a joint operation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said they had used special cameras to determine that the 22nd site, in the northern Aleppo region, had been destroyed. The cameras were operated by Syrian personnel working under the inspectors’ supervision, eliminating any possibility of mistake or deception, they said.
“The cameras had been rendered tamper-proof and equipped in such a way that we knew at all times where they were,” a spokesman for the Hague-based organization, Christian Chartier, said in an email. “Thanks to these devices, the footage could not be edited. It was then checked against satellite imagery and cross-referenced with other data.”
The cameras showed the site had long been abandoned and damaged by fighting in the civil war, the organization said in a statement on its website.
Twenty-one Syrian sites had been declared neutralized by the inspectors last week, along with all of the mixing equipment the Syrians had declared, but the final two sites had been considered too dangerous to visit because of the war. The inspectors must still verify the destruction of the last remaining site.
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria agreed in September to destroy the chemical weapons arsenal under a Russian-American agreement that averted American airstrikes on his military.
The Obama administration had threatened the airstrikes in response to an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus that the Americans and their allies said had been carried out by Syrian government forces and had killed hundreds of civilians. Mr. Assad, backed by Russia, said insurgents seeking to overthrow him were responsible.
Under the agreement and a United Nations Security Council resolution, all of Syria’s 1,300 metric tons of chemical weapons must be destroyed by the middle of 2014. It remains unclear how the international inspectors will ensure that outcome in the midst of a bitter civil war that has left more than 110,000 people dead and millions displaced since it began as a peaceful uprising against Mr. Assad in March 2011.
Mr. Assad has so far been unusually cooperative in honoring his pledge to destroy the weapons. At the same time, his cooperation has helped to strengthen his political credibility, frustrating the fractious Western-backed opposition seeking to depose him and complicating diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the war.
The cooperation has come as Mr. Assad’s forces have made some significant battlefield gains. On Thursday, both Syrian state news media and opposition activists said the Syrian Army and its militia allies had captured Sbeineh, an important suburb of Damascus, after days of clashes. Sbeineh is on a highway linking Damascus to the Jordanian border, and a loss of control by the rebels could put pressure on supply conduits for insurgent enclaves elsewhere near the capital.
Russian, American and United Nations diplomats seeking to set a date for a peace conference in Geneva acknowledged this week that it would not happen this month and perhaps not this year.
On Wednesday, the Russian deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, invited representatives from both the Syrian government and the opposition to more informal talks in hopes of creating what he called “a favorable atmosphere” for more formal discussions. Russian news media quoted Mr. Bogdanov as saying that some of Mr. Assad’s opponents had agreed to participate, although it remained unclear when that might happen.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who is on a trip through the Middle East, said he was not discouraged by the delays in setting a date for formal peace talks in Geneva, originally proposed six months ago. Speaking to reporters in Jordan on Thursday, Mr. Kerry expressed confidence that “somewhere in the next days a date is going to be set.”
Alan Cowell reported from London, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.
The inspectors, deployed in a joint operation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said they had used special cameras to determine that the 22nd site, in the northern Aleppo region, had been destroyed. The cameras were operated by Syrian personnel working under the inspectors’ supervision, eliminating any possibility of mistake or deception, they said.
“The cameras had been rendered tamper-proof and equipped in such a way that we knew at all times where they were,” a spokesman for the Hague-based organization, Christian Chartier, said in an email. “Thanks to these devices, the footage could not be edited. It was then checked against satellite imagery and cross-referenced with other data.”
The cameras showed the site had long been abandoned and damaged by fighting in the civil war, the organization said in a statement on its website.
Twenty-one Syrian sites had been declared neutralized by the inspectors last week, along with all of the mixing equipment the Syrians had declared, but the final two sites had been considered too dangerous to visit because of the war. The inspectors must still verify the destruction of the last remaining site.
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria agreed in September to destroy the chemical weapons arsenal under a Russian-American agreement that averted American airstrikes on his military.
The Obama administration had threatened the airstrikes in response to an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus that the Americans and their allies said had been carried out by Syrian government forces and had killed hundreds of civilians. Mr. Assad, backed by Russia, said insurgents seeking to overthrow him were responsible.
Under the agreement and a United Nations Security Council resolution, all of Syria’s 1,300 metric tons of chemical weapons must be destroyed by the middle of 2014. It remains unclear how the international inspectors will ensure that outcome in the midst of a bitter civil war that has left more than 110,000 people dead and millions displaced since it began as a peaceful uprising against Mr. Assad in March 2011.
Mr. Assad has so far been unusually cooperative in honoring his pledge to destroy the weapons. At the same time, his cooperation has helped to strengthen his political credibility, frustrating the fractious Western-backed opposition seeking to depose him and complicating diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the war.
The cooperation has come as Mr. Assad’s forces have made some significant battlefield gains. On Thursday, both Syrian state news media and opposition activists said the Syrian Army and its militia allies had captured Sbeineh, an important suburb of Damascus, after days of clashes. Sbeineh is on a highway linking Damascus to the Jordanian border, and a loss of control by the rebels could put pressure on supply conduits for insurgent enclaves elsewhere near the capital.
Russian, American and United Nations diplomats seeking to set a date for a peace conference in Geneva acknowledged this week that it would not happen this month and perhaps not this year.
On Wednesday, the Russian deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, invited representatives from both the Syrian government and the opposition to more informal talks in hopes of creating what he called “a favorable atmosphere” for more formal discussions. Russian news media quoted Mr. Bogdanov as saying that some of Mr. Assad’s opponents had agreed to participate, although it remained unclear when that might happen.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who is on a trip through the Middle East, said he was not discouraged by the delays in setting a date for formal peace talks in Geneva, originally proposed six months ago. Speaking to reporters in Jordan on Thursday, Mr. Kerry expressed confidence that “somewhere in the next days a date is going to be set.”
Alan Cowell reported from London, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut, Lebanon.
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