Experts discuss international efforts to destroy Syrian chemical arsenal

The UN special commission's report concerning the recent chemical attack near Damascus was published on Monday. However, the UN experts did not manage to find out who is responsible for the attack, they only proved that the attack did in fact take place. Thus the United States is going to implement the Russia-sponsored plan to destroy the Syrian chemical arsenal.

The plan was approved by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday.

Russian experts Vladimir Orlov and Andrey Baklitsky discussed with Vestnik Kavkaza the measures to impose international control over the Syrian chemical weapons.

According to Vladimir Orlov, the agreement reached in Geneva is a breakthrough. "Such a mass destruction of chemical weapons has not taken place for many years. The last such case was after the collapse of the Soviet Union in Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine. It also happened in Iraq in 1990, but the situation was different," he said.

It's very important to take action immediately. US-Russian ties are not good enough, so every chance should be used to settle the matter, he believes.

At the same time, the expert says Russia should not support the total disarmament of Assad's forces. Saudi Arabia has already allocated a lot of money to the rebels. Further success of the rebels will endanger the US-Russian plan, Orlov says.

Andrey Baklitsky notes that the Syrian case is not unique. The country is ready to destroy its chemical arsenal itself. There are 1000 tons of chemical weapons in Syria. Russia, for instance, destroyed 4000 tons of chemical weapons within a year, he says.

It's a good idea to relocate the Syrian chemical arsenal to Russia and destroy it there. The process of relocation will take some four months, the expert says.

It will be hard to destroy these weapons in Syria itself, he believes.