Intel: UN finds undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in Syria
The Syrian government is not being transparent with chemical weapons inspections, say UN officials.
United Nations investigators uncovered previously undisclosed stockpiles of Syria’s chemical weapons, the UN’s top official for disarmament revealed to the Security Council on Thursday.
The discovery is the latest sign that the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad has not fully complied with an US and Russia-brokered agreement in 2013 to destroy the country’s stockpiles.
Analysis of samples from storage containers at a previously declared chemical weapons facility revealed a “large volume” of a chemical warfare agent, the UN’s disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu said yesterday.
Syria’s government recently denied the site was used to produce chemical warfare agents, a claim rejected by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, she added. The OPCW found that a written explanation from the Syrian government in March following the detection was “not sufficient to explain” the chemicals’ presence at the site.
