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Syria "Stalling" on Giving Up Chemical Weapons, U.S. Says
(Washington Post) Ernesto Londono and Greg Miller - The effort to dismantle Syria's chemical weapons program has ground to a halt because Syria is holding on to 27 tons of sarin precursor chemicals as leverage in a dispute with the international community, according to U.S. officials. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is insisting that a network of tunnels and buildings that were used to store the weapons must be destroyed. The Assad government has argued that the facilities should be repurposed. The OPCW says that the Chemical Weapons Convention requires Syria to eliminate facilities that were used to produce and store chemical weapons. "Until and unless all of the declared material is removed from the country," and any lingering questions about additional, undeclared stockpiles are addressed, "it is unwise for OPCW to be satisfied with leaving these production facilities partially intact," said Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association. Robert P. Mikulak, the U.S. representative to the executive council of the OPCW, said, "Twelve chemical weapons production facilities declared by Syria remain structurally intact. Why is that? The answer is Syria's intransigence."