Daily Telegraph 10-Dec-13
Fighting in Syria is likely to hold up the removal of the country's chemical arsenal, it has emerged
The deadline for removing chemical weapons from Syria is liable to be missed because fighting for control of the key motorway to the coast poses a continuing threat to convoys carrying the arsenal, officials warned yesterday.
Under a UN-backed agreement with the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical weapons (OPCW), Syria must ship 30 tons of mustard and sarin gas - the two most deadly elements of its arsenal - out of the country by Dec 31.
Ahmet Uzumcu, the head of the OPCW, however conceded yesterday that the security challenges in Syria could derail the agreed timetable.
"In view of the circumstances in this country, it will be quite difficult to meet this time line," said Mr Uzumcu, who is in Oslo to accept the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the organisation.
An adviser to the Ministry of Defence told the Telegraph that there was a grave danger that the convoy would be attacked on the highway.
"If this area is still contested when the stockpile has to be transported, you have to be very worried about how the Syrians are going to move this material," the adviser said. "There have already been roadside bombs in the area and we have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan how large and sophisticated these devices can be. If they can blow a tank three metres in the air, they can disable trucks and stop the convoy.
"Its also very had to see how the OPCW and the UN will be able to supervise the shipment if they are not able to travel into these areas."
Regime troops recaptured a key part of the main motorway linking Damascus with the coast yesterday, according to Syrian officials. They said the regime's army had taken two towns, Qara and Deir Attiyah, to open the road that runs close to the town of Nabak. Rebel fighters forced the closure of the Damascus-Homs highway from Nabak earlier this year and had withstood a government offensive launched in mid-November until yesterday.
However close observers of the conflict said there was still sporadic outbreaks of fighting in the area. "The road is open but not safe," said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely follows frontline fighting in the Syrian civil war.
The highway would be the most likely route to ship the chemical weapons arsenal from a depot in the Khan Abu Shamat area north of Damascus to the northern port of Latakia.
Separately Russia floated a proposal to send its troops to help move the convoy.
"Transport, yes ... the issue is being discussed," said Mikhail Bogdanov, deputy foreign minister, but he added that the Assad regime was primarily responsible for safeguarding the material. "My understanding is that the Syrian authorities should protect (the shipments)."
Experts believe the mustard gas and other agents will require to be packed into 140 shipping containers - which Syria claims will be bullet proof - and carried in a convoy of lorries to Latakia. A second exercise to remove other chemicals associated with the arsenal before a Feb 5 deadline also faces delays.
The mustard and sarin gas is to be ferried from Latakiya by a Danish cargo vessel, escorted by a Norwegian warship, to the MV Cape Ray, operated by the US Navy, on which it will be destroyed.
America has appealed for a third country, including the UK, to offer a port facility where the weapons can be safely transferred from the Danish vessel to the American ship. Moving them from one ship to another at sea has been described as "high-risk" by experts.
Fighting in Syria is likely to hold up the removal of the country's chemical arsenal, it has emerged
The deadline for removing chemical weapons from Syria is liable to be missed because fighting for control of the key motorway to the coast poses a continuing threat to convoys carrying the arsenal, officials warned yesterday.
Under a UN-backed agreement with the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical weapons (OPCW), Syria must ship 30 tons of mustard and sarin gas - the two most deadly elements of its arsenal - out of the country by Dec 31.
Ahmet Uzumcu, the head of the OPCW, however conceded yesterday that the security challenges in Syria could derail the agreed timetable.
"In view of the circumstances in this country, it will be quite difficult to meet this time line," said Mr Uzumcu, who is in Oslo to accept the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the organisation.
An adviser to the Ministry of Defence told the Telegraph that there was a grave danger that the convoy would be attacked on the highway.
"If this area is still contested when the stockpile has to be transported, you have to be very worried about how the Syrians are going to move this material," the adviser said. "There have already been roadside bombs in the area and we have seen in Iraq and Afghanistan how large and sophisticated these devices can be. If they can blow a tank three metres in the air, they can disable trucks and stop the convoy.
"Its also very had to see how the OPCW and the UN will be able to supervise the shipment if they are not able to travel into these areas."
Regime troops recaptured a key part of the main motorway linking Damascus with the coast yesterday, according to Syrian officials. They said the regime's army had taken two towns, Qara and Deir Attiyah, to open the road that runs close to the town of Nabak. Rebel fighters forced the closure of the Damascus-Homs highway from Nabak earlier this year and had withstood a government offensive launched in mid-November until yesterday.
However close observers of the conflict said there was still sporadic outbreaks of fighting in the area. "The road is open but not safe," said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely follows frontline fighting in the Syrian civil war.
The highway would be the most likely route to ship the chemical weapons arsenal from a depot in the Khan Abu Shamat area north of Damascus to the northern port of Latakia.
Separately Russia floated a proposal to send its troops to help move the convoy.
"Transport, yes ... the issue is being discussed," said Mikhail Bogdanov, deputy foreign minister, but he added that the Assad regime was primarily responsible for safeguarding the material. "My understanding is that the Syrian authorities should protect (the shipments)."
Experts believe the mustard gas and other agents will require to be packed into 140 shipping containers - which Syria claims will be bullet proof - and carried in a convoy of lorries to Latakia. A second exercise to remove other chemicals associated with the arsenal before a Feb 5 deadline also faces delays.
The mustard and sarin gas is to be ferried from Latakiya by a Danish cargo vessel, escorted by a Norwegian warship, to the MV Cape Ray, operated by the US Navy, on which it will be destroyed.
America has appealed for a third country, including the UK, to offer a port facility where the weapons can be safely transferred from the Danish vessel to the American ship. Moving them from one ship to another at sea has been described as "high-risk" by experts.
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