Zee Media Bureau/Tarun Khanna
Damascus: With an aim to disarm Syria of chemical weapons within the deadline of nine months, a team of inspectors from Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and United Nations began the disarmament process on Sunday, UN officials said.
The team is abiding by the UN resolution which was passed after mutual consent between Russia and United States.
Both the world powers, in a way to avoid punitive action against Syria following August 21 chemical attack, had agreed on elimination of Syria’s chemical stock.
Over hundreds of Syria civilians were killed in the chemical attacks which were later condemned globally.
The first phase of the disarmament process involves destroying capability of Syria to produce chemical weapons by November 1
United States had earlier threatened Syrian regime to be ready to face the harsh consequences for attack on its people. It had accused President Bashar al-assad of carrying out such attacks.
However, Russia had been supporting the Assad’s regime throughout.
In September, the UN expert, who had collected the samples near Damascus, had confirmed the use of the nerve agent sarin in an August 21 attack. It had also said that the operation to destroy Syria`s chemical arsenal will be one of the largest and most dangerous of its kind.
The team faces challenge to destroy nearly 1,000 tonnes of the nerve agent sarin, mustard gas and other banned arms at dozens of sites.
