Syria misses deadline for removing chemical weapons

Photo: AP photo

The Syrian government missed the deadline for taking another batch of chemical weapons out of the country again. Yet, the government of Syria intends to complete the work in the coming days, The New York Times reports.

Originally, Syria was supposed to take the 1,200-ton batch of chemical weapons in February, but the deadline was pushed back to April 27. By this date, exports had been 92.5 percent finished. According to Sigrid Kaag, the coordinator of the project, which is being conducted by the UN in collaboration with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Syria made considerable progress, but the government should "take the last step in the near future."

All chemical weapons should be removed from the territory of the country and destroyed by 30 June.

On August 21, 2013, a missile attack with the use of sarin gas was conducted in a suburb of Damascus. There is no hard evidence to who used internationally law prohibited weapons, but the U.S. accused the government of Syria of the attack and threatened to conduct a pre-emptive missile strike on the country.

At the last moment, Russia's Vladimir Putin proposed to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control to subsequently remove and destroy them. Many experts believe that Putin saved Syria from the U.S. military invasion.