Chemical Arms Inspectors Say Syria Has Destroyed All Declared Sites

By ALAN COWELL, NYT

LONDON — The international chemical weapons watchdog said on Thursday that Syria had met an important deadline for the “functional destruction” of all the chemical weapons production and mixing facilities it declared to inspectors, rendering them inoperable, under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States.

While some experts depicted the announcement as a milestone, the measures left President Bashar al-Assad in control of a declared 1,290 metric tons of chemical weapons that are supposed to be destroyed by mid-2014, and an array of conventional weapons used in the country’s bloody civil war, in which over 100,000 people have died.

“The Assad regime continues to use artillery, air power and siege tactics against civilians, with thousands killed every month,” the British Foreign Office said in a statement. While the destruction of facilities is “an important first milestone, it brings no relief to the Syrian people.”

“As winter approaches, the humanitarian situation grows more acute with millions left vulnerable,” the statement said.

(More here.)