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The World May Never Know If Syria Really Destroyed All Its Chemical Weapons

(Foreign Policy) Colum Lynch - Between 2004 and 2007, Syria made 385 metric tons of sulfur mustard gas. A report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) questions whether Syria may have retained a stockpile of tactical chemical munitions for delivery of mustard gas that it has never acknowledged. "Syria has engaged in a calculated campaign of intransigence and obfuscation, of deception, and of defiance," Kenneth Ward, the U.S. representative to the OPCW, told the group's executive council in July. "We...remain very concerned that [the chemical warfare agents] and associated munitions, subject to declaration and destruction, have been illicitly retained by Syria." The discrepancy in Syria's mustard gas inventory is only one of more than a dozen big mysteries surrounding the country's chemical weapons program. There remain serious questions over Damascus' claims that it has eliminated all its chemical weapons munitions, as well as precursors of deadly agents, including ricin, and nerve agents such as sarin, VX, and soman, according to the report.
2016-09-02 00:00:00
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