A planned international operation to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal at sea will pose no threat to the Mediterranean ecosystem, Greece’s foreign minister told an EU conference on Thursday.

“Our concerted diplomatic efforts... have given many institutional and scientific guarantees that there is truly no threat to the marine environment,” Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos told the conference on hammering out a common strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian region.

“NGOs, with which I am in contact, are in close cooperation with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) so that we can be certain that there will be no harm to the Mediterranean environment,” Venizelos said.

Greece currently holds the rotating six-month EU presidency.

The UN Security Council last year backed a US-Russian deal to destroy Syria’s vast chemical arsenal, but Italy and Malta have already expressed concern over the operation’s environmental impact.

Under the agreement, Syria’s entire chemical arsenal is to be eliminated by 30 June, a deadline now likely to be missed owing to the ongoing conflict.

Hydrolysis systems on board a US cargo ship sailing in international waters are to mix heated water and other chemicals to break down the lethal agents, resulting in a sludge equivalent to industrial toxic waste.

“We have received every assurance that nothing will be discharged at sea,” Venizelos said, adding that the final stage of the operation will be undertaken on land, “possibly in Germany,” he said.

Syria has declared around 700 tonnes of most-dangerous chemicals, 500 tonnes of less-dangerous precursor chemicals and around 122 tonnes of isopropanol, which can be used to make sarin.

Venizelos added that it would be preferable for the operation to be carried out in the Atlantic, pointing to a Portuguese offer to host the operation off the Azores, but he noted this was beyond the EU’s power to determine.

 

UN urges Syria to hasten weapons disposal

The UN Security Council called on Syria Thursday to speed up the removal of its most harmful chemical weapons agents from the country, expressing “growing concern” at several missed deadlines.

The Syrian government missed a 31 December deadline to remove the most dangerous chemicals in its stockpile from the war-torn country as well as Wednesday’s deadline to give up its entire stockpile of chemical weapons. The al-Assad regime has cited security concerns and the lack of some equipment but says it remains fully committed to the process.

A council statement issued Thursday, after a closed briefing by Sigrid Kaag, head of the mission charged with destroying Syria’s chemical weapons, called on Syria “to expedite actions to meet its obligation to transport in a systematic and sufficiently accelerated manner all relevant chemicals” to the port of Latakia for removal.

By delaying, she said, the al-Assad regime is increasing the cost to nations involved in the removal and is “also encouraging heightened risks that these weapons will be used again by regime elements or will fall into the hands of terrorists.”

“We’ve seen, so far, constructive cooperation,” she said. She pointed to the ongoing destruction of less harmful chemicals taking place in Syria and the continuing preparations for the removal of more harmful agents.

Kaag said that the mission’s message is clear: Syria must quickly accelerate shipments, include more material in every transport to make up for lost time, and provide predictable movements of chemicals from Latakia.

“This is an unprecedented effort in a country at war ... but it cannot be a reason for non-implementation,” she told AP. “It is our assessment that a lot can be done in a fairly short amount of time, and that, I think, is what the focus should be on.”

The Security Council noted the removal of “limited quantities of chemical weapons materials” on 7 January and 27 January from Latakia by Norwegian and Danish cargo vessels accompanied by a naval escort including ships from China, Norway, Denmark and Russia. The chemicals will be transferred to a specially fitted US ship, the Cape Ray, which is expected to arrive in Rota, Spain by next week, for on-board destruction.

Russia said Tuesday that Syria is planning to come up with a new timeline for eliminating its chemical weapons by the 30 June deadline. Meanwhile, Kaag said that the UN and OPCW are waiting for “a more-detailed, forward-looking plan” which will “be important for the credibility of the overall endeavour and ... for all partners, including the Security Council, to have a sense of reassurance.

“The proof of the pudding is in the eating. So the plan is a guidance tool. Continuous implementation is what really counts,” she said.

UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, told a news conference at the Winter Olympics site in Sochi, Russia on Thursday that despite the delays, he still believes the 30 June deadline for destroying Syria’s entire chemical weapons programme “can be done with the support of the Syrian government.”