The UN report on chemical attacks in Damascus on August 21 has not clarified the source of the incident, but only confirmed its occurrence. The US is still committed to the plan for international control over Syrian chemical weapons discussed by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday.
Vladimir Orlov, President of the PIR-Center, and Andrey Baklitsky, director of the center’s information projects, described the situation around Syrian chemical weapons and their disposal and weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.
Orlov called the results of the Geneva meeting a breakthrough. Previous elimination of chemical weapons happened in Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine after the collapse of the USSR, and in Iraq in 1990. The expert reminded that President Assad had no reasons to attack peaceful citizens with chemical weapons. He believes that Russia should encourage Syria to disarm. Saudi Arabia still wants to end Assad’s regime.
Baklitsky reminded that Syria was a unique case for disposal of chemical weapons. He believes that Syria has 1,000 tons of such weapons. Russia disposed of 4,000 tons of such weapons in a year. Russia could get rid of all Syrian chemical weapons in just 4 months, the expert said. He noted that Syria may need up to 2 years to build a facility to dispose of the weapons.
Baklitsky said that the chemical weapons could be shipped to Russia, Jordan and Turkey, although not one of them has agreed to receive the weapons. He called mid-2014 a perfect deadline.
