Discrepancies remain over Syrian chemical weapons, says UN

Samantha Power cites danger of omitted toxins falling into Islamic State hands

The United Nations said on Thursday that discrepancies and questions still surrounded Syria’s chemical weapons declaration as the US expressed concern that any omitted toxins could fall into the hands of Islamic State militants.

Sigrid Kaag, head of a joint UN and Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons mission overseeing the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons, said that since President Bashar al-Assad’s government submitted its original declaration late last year, Damascus had made four amendments.

“The declaration by the Syrian authorities themselves – there are still some discrepancies or questions that are being asked,” she said after briefing the UN Security Council for the last time before the joint mission ends on September 30th. “It’s a discussion that’s continuing in Damascus as well as The Hague.”

Discrepancies

“There are concerns over possible discrepancies in volume and other such matters,” she said. “I am heading back to Damascus in the coming period and we will also pursue that.”

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But with the Islamic State now in control of large swathes of Syria and Iraq, US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said there were worries that any undeclared chemical arms could fall into their hands.

“The United States is concerned about all discrepancies, also the potential that there are real omissions in the declaration,” Ms Power, who is president of the security council for September, said after Ms Kaag’s briefing.

“Certainly if there are chemical weapons left in Syria, there will be a risk that those weapons fall into [Islamic State’s] hands. And we can only imagine what a group like that would do if in possession of such a weapon,” she said.

Mr Kaag said 100 per cent of the worst-declared toxins had been destroyed, while 96 percent of the overall stockpile had been wiped out. – (Reuters)