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 Approval by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons of a destruction plan is a crucial step in the international
community's efforts to eliminate President Bashar Assad's stockpile
that is believed to include mustard gas and sarin.
The risky disarmament operation in the midst of a raging civil war
started more than a month ago with inspections and the smashing of
machinery used to mix chemicals and fill empty munitions, thereby
ending the regime's capability to make new weapons.
Syria has proposed moving the stockpile out of the country for
destruction and the OPCW said that was the "most viable" option.
The mission stems from a deadly Aug. 21 attack on opposition-held
suburbs of Damascus in which the United Nations determined the nerve
agent sarin was used. Hundreds of people were killed. The U.S. and
Western allies accuse Syria's government of being responsible, while
Damascus blames the rebels.
The Obama administration threatened to launch punitive missile
strikes against Syria, prompting frantic diplomatic efforts to
forestall an attack. Those efforts concluded with September's
unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing the elimination
of Syria's chemical weapons, a process that began last month.
Since then, international inspectors have visited 22 of 23 chemical
weapons sites declared by Syria and confirmed Damascus met a Nov. 1
deadline to destroy or "render inoperable" all chemical weapon
production facilities.
Syria also submitted a confidential plan for the destruction of its
stockpile, which has to be endorsed by the OPCW's Executive Council
on Friday.
In a clear indication that the plan will involve transferring the
chemical weapons out of Syria, Norway's Foreign Minister said
Thursday his country would send a civilian cargo ship and a Navy
frigate to Syria to pick up the stockpiles and carry them elsewhere
for destruction.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Borge Brende described
destroying Assad's arsenal as a Norwegian obligation. Fifty
servicemen usually accompany a Norwegian frigate and Brende
acknowledged the operation is "not risk-free."
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Exactly where the weapons will be taken remains unclear, but
Albania, which successfully destroyed its own poison gas arsenal, is
being tipped as a candidate, triggering protests there.
Syria's conflict — now in its third year — has killed more than
120,000 people, according to activists, and displaced millions. It
started as an uprising against Assad's rule but later turned into an
armed conflict and a vicious civil war. The fighting has pitted
Assad's government forces against a disunited array of rebel
factions, including al-Qaida-linked extremists.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies
on a network of activists on the ground, said Friday that a
government airstrike the previous night in northern Syria killed a
senior rebel figure and wounded two commanders and the spokesman of
the Tawhid Brigade, the main rebel outfit in Aleppo province.
According to the Observatory, the chief commander of the brigade,
Abdul-Qadir Saleh, was wounded while the brigade's financial
officer, Abu Tayeb, was killed. The spokesman, Saleh Anadan, said
later in a video released from his hospital bed, that the brigade's
post took a direct hit.
Government troops have advanced in Aleppo over the past weeks,
capturing strategic parts of the province, including the town of
Safira, a development that secured a supply flow to government-held
areas in the north.
[Associated
Press; MIKE CORDER]
Associated Press writer
Bassem Mroue contributed to this report from Beirut.
Copyright 2013 The Associated
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