05/10/2013 09:00
Syria submits further details of its chemical arms program
Syria has given international experts additional details about its chemical weapons program that go beyond a September 21 declaration of its poison gas arsenal, the United Nations said on Friday, according to Reuters.
The team consists of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, Netherlands, with help from U.N. personnel. Last week, the U.N. Security Council demanded the elimination of Syria's chemical arsenal.
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said the director-general of the organization, Ahmet Uzumcu, informed the agency's executive council that Syria has presented it with new details.
"The additional submission is being reviewed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," Nesirky said. He said Uzumcu was expected to give OPCW member countries an update on Tuesday.
He gave no details about the new information.
Western diplomats in New York have said their countries' intelligence agencies are analyzing the declaration on Syria's chemical weapons program that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government submitted to the OPCW on September 21.
The contents of Damascus' declaration have not been made public.