(Washington Post) Editorial - In practice, the landmark effort to destroy Syria's entire stockpile of dangerous chemical weapons has stalled. Syria has failed to fulfill its part of the deal, moving only 4% of the chemicals to the port at Latakia. Assad is, in effect, slow-walking the chemicals in order to obtain more security equipment. U.S. Ambassador Robert P. Mikulak said that Syria has demanded "armored jackets for shipping containers, electronic countermeasures, and detectors for improvised explosive devices." Mikulak added that the demands are "without merit." Assad's gambit is unacceptable. The chemical weapons removal was the direct outgrowth of the use of poison gas to kill more than 1,400 people last year, including women and children. It appears that Assad is playing games. This cannot be tolerated.
2014-02-03 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive