US raising pressure on Syria over chemical arms removal

Rasa - The United States is stepping up criticism of the Syrian government over the removal of its chemical weapons by accusing Damascus of deliberately stalling an international disarmament deal.

News ID: 618

Date: 01 February 2014 - 08:52

Rasa News Agency reports - "Syria must immediately take the necessary actions to comply with its obligations," White House spokesman Jay Carney said at a Friday briefing in Washington.

"We're going to continue to work with our partners on this to keep up the pressure” on the Syrian government, he added.

His comments come a day after the US administration accused the Syrian government of dragging its feet in the effort to eliminate its chemical weapons stockpile

Russia rejected the charges and said a June 30 deadline to destroy Syria's arsenal of toxic agents remains viable, despite delays.

The Russian Foreign Ministry says the delays are due to security problems on the road to the Syrian port city of Latakia and insufficient technical support from the outside world

On September 14, Russia and the US agreed on a deal according to which Syria would have its chemical weapons eliminated and the US would in return not carry out planned strikes on the Arab country.

Under the plan by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Nordic vessels are set to collect the chemicals from Latakia and take them to a port in Italy, where they will be loaded onto a US ship for annihilation.

In late October, Damascus destroyed its critical chemical weapons production equipment, meeting a November 1 deadline set by the OPCW Executive Council.

The UN-mandated disarmament operation is due to be completed by the middle of 2014.

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