UN Official Praises Syrian Cooperation on Chemical File
In conjunction with ongoing international efforts to reach the full truth, a senior UN official praised the "full and transparent" cooperation from the Syrian government regarding the chemical weapons file.
During a session of the UN Security Council on developments in the Middle East, Izumi Nakamitsu, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, stated that "the commitment of the new authorities in Syria to full and transparent cooperation with the Technical Secretariat of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is commendable," emphasizing that both parties continue to work together on how to address the outstanding issues.
Nakamitsu revealed the organization's intention to visit all suspicious sites in Syria, where a previous report from the Technical Secretariat indicated "the existence of more than 100 sites in Syria that may be related to chemical weapons activities during the time of the former regime, in addition to the 26 declared sites."
The UN official explained that progress on the file faced some obstacles, including Israeli attacks targeting Damascus last July, which forced the organization to postpone one of the planned visits. She confirmed that these attacks affected sites that included "a building where the organization's teams had several consultations with the relevant Syrian authorities."
In a related development, Nakamitsu revealed that the organization "informed the Syrian authorities of concerning results gathered from one site, revealing indicators of the presence of chemical materials," considering that there is a "critical opportunity currently to obtain long-awaited clarifications regarding the full extent and scope of the Syrian chemical weapons file, and to rid the country of all chemical weapons."
This comes at a time when the International Atomic Energy Agency reported in a previous report finding "traces of uranium at one of the sites belonging to the former regime in Deir ez-Zor," as part of its joint investigations with the Syrian government.
