Most of Syria’s Toxins Said ‘Unweaponized’, Easily Destroyed

Local Editor

US and Russian officials now believe that the vast majority of Syria's nerve agent stockpile consists of "unweaponized" liquid precursors that could be neutralized relatively quickly, the American daily Washington Post reported Friday.

The newspaper noted that "a confidential assessment by the United States and Russia also concludes that Syria's entire arsenal could be destroyed in about nine months, assuming that Syrian officials honor promises to cede control of the chemical assets to international inspectors, according to two people briefed on the analysis."
"The insights into Syria's arsenal have been bolstered further by the Damascus government's own accounting, which lists the types of chemical agents and delivery systems it possesses, and was presented Saturday to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague," the Washington Post said.
It further added that US officials who have reviewed the Syrian inventory, which has not been publicly released, "found it quite good."

White House officials said that US and Russian officials were mostly in agreement on the nature of Syria's chemical arsenal, and told experts that Syria has more than one thousand chemical ton, including 300 tons of Mustard gas.
Nearly all of the remainder consists of chemical precursors of nerve agents, described as being "unweaponized" and in "liquid bulk" form used to make toxic gases, primarily sarin, according to two people who attended the White House briefings.

The US daily clarified that "if UN inspection teams can remove even one of the sarin precursors, they can all but eliminate the ability of Syria and extremist groups to produce toxic gases."

The report also revealed that the US and Russian governments differed on where the physical destruction of sarin and other toxins should take place.
Several scientists, according to the report, noted that it is far easier to destroy precursor chemicals than battlefield-­ready liquid sarin or warheads already loaded with the toxin.

Source: Washington Post