Chemical Weapon Inspector Pressures Syria For Explanation On 'Discrepancies'

Inspectors overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal have asked President Bashar al-Assad's government to clarify disparities in its original declaration on its cache of toxic gas, diplomats said on Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.

The envoys were citing remarks by Sigrid Kaag, head of the joint mission to Syria of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, who was briefing the 15-member U.N. Security Council, the AP reported.

Speaking to reporters after the council meeting, Kaag spoke of ongoing efforts to overcome the declaration's "deficiencies that have been identified, in collaboration with the authorities," according to the AP.

The Western diplomat who attended the meeting said some of the discrepancies went beyond routine errors, noting that there were omissions from Syria's declaration, the AP reported.

Last month, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that a June 30 deadline for the destruction of all of Syria's declared chemical weapons would not be met and the mission would continue working for a "finite period of time," according to the AP.

French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud said on his Twitter feed that Kaag's mission "will need to continue its activities beyond this date (June 30)," and also noted that the recent alleged chlorine gas attacks, which France has blamed on the government, were a violation of international law, the AP reported.

Kaag made clear that the destruction of the weapons would not be completed this month, noting there was still work to be done on destroying facilities linked to Syria's chemical weapons program, according to the AP.

After hundreds of people were killed in an August 2013 sarin nerve gas attack near Damascus, a September agreement with Russia and the United States averted U.S. military strikes in response to the worst chemical weapons attack in decades, which Washington and its European allies blamed on Assad, the AP reported.

His government denies the allegation and blames the rebels for all chemical attacks in Syria, according to the AP.

Syria still has roughly 7 percent of 1,300 metric tonnes of chemical weapons it declared to the OPCW, enough highly toxic material to carry out a large-scale attack, the AP reported.

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