Syria has launched a Washington-backed plan to destroy the country's remaining chemical weapons that were used against its people under ousted leader Bashar al-Assad, Reuters has learned.
For decades, Assad ran a massive chemical weapons program whose use killed and wounded thousands during Syria's long civil war.
Although Damascus signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013 and declared a stockpile of 1,300 tons, the banned use has continued and the scale of the program remains unclear.
An international task force backed by the United States, Germany, Britain, Canada and France, among others, will track down all remaining elements of the program and destroyed under the supervision of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ibrahim Olabi, said in an interview.
According to OPCW experts, up to 100 sites in Syria need to be inspected to determine what toxic munitions remain and how they should be destroyed.
This will require a lengthy and costly operation to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction in a region wracked by conflict and political unrest.
The escalating U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and broader regional security concerns will make the timing of the mission uncertain, but that makes it all the more necessary to prevent future use, officials say.
“We don’t know what’s left. It was a secret program,” Olabi said. "Syria should get to work finding these sites and then declaring them."
A diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue, said the 100 sites could be anything from military bases to laboratories or offices.
"It will probably take many months, if not years, to get this done, and of course the current situation in the Middle East is not helping the process to move forward towards actually destroying the remnants of Assad's chemical weapons program," the source said.