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U.S. Chides Syria on Missed Chemical Arms Deadlines U.S. Chides Syria on Missed Chemical Arms Deadlines
(about 3 hours later)
WARSAW — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel expressed the Obama administration’s frustration with the Syrian government on Thursday for failing to meet deadlines for the destruction of its stockpile of chemical weapons. Angered over a missed deadline in Syria’s pledge to export its chemical weapons, the United States sharply criticized the government of President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday, accusing him of stalling their removal and — in a new complaint — weakening the country’s promise to destroy the 12 facilities that produced them.
“The United States is concerned that the Syrian government is behind in delivering these chemical weapons and precursor materials on time, and with the schedule that was agreed to,” Mr. Hagel said here after a meeting with the Polish defense minister, Tomasz Siemoniak. The criticisms, expressed by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and the United States ambassador to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the Hague-based group helping oversee the elimination of the Syrian arsenal, contrasted sharply with the diplomatic decorum that had prevailed since the operation began more than three months ago. Up until January, after the first deadline was missed, the Syrian government had been widely praised for its cooperation.
Mr. Hagel said he had spoken to his Russian counterpart, Sergei K. Shoigu, by telephone on Wednesday, and asked him to use Moscow’s influence with the government of President Bashar al-Assad to speed up compliance. The criticisms by the American ambassador, Robert P. Mikulak, in a statement presented at the organization’s executive council meeting at the Hague, were particularly blunt and specific. They were posted on the State Department’s website — another message that the United States wanted its criticism known outside the executive council’s chambers.
Syrian officials have attributed the delays to security problems created by the civil war that have prevented them from moving the chemicals safely to the port of Latakia, where they are to be exported for eventual destruction at sea. Two small shipments representing only a tiny percentage of the 600 tons of the most dangerous chemicals have been exported so far, one shipment on Jan. 7 and the other on Monday. Ambassador Mikulak said that since the executive council’s last meeting on Jan. 8, “the effort to remove chemical agent and key precursor chemicals from Syria has seriously languished and stalled.”
The deadline for exporting all 600 tons of the most dangerous chemicals passed on Dec. 31, and the deadline for exporting the total amount of all chemical materials, an estimated 1,200 tons, is Feb. 6. There is a widespread expectation that deadline will be missed as well. He said only about 4 percent of the roughly 1,200 tons of chemicals, half of them especially dangerous, had been exported from the Syrian port of Latakia — the first public disclosure of how much remains in the country.
President Assad said in an interview with Agence France-Presse last week that he partly blamed the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the group based in The Hague that is helping oversee the destruction of the Syrian arsenal, for what Mr. Assad called its slow response to Syrian requests for equipment to safely transport the chemicals. The organization has declined to comment on Mr. Assad’s criticism, but nonproliferation experts and diplomats have said privately that Syria has been supplied with everything it needs. Under Syria’s pledge to renounce the weapons, the most dangerous chemicals were supposed to be exported for eventual destruction at sea on Dec. 31, but the first shipment was not exported from Latakia until Jan. 7. The entire stockpile is supposed to be exported by Feb. 6, a deadline that many nonproliferation experts anticipate will be violated.
Ambassador Mikulak said Syrian demands for additional equipment needed to transport the chemicals “are without merit, and display a ‘bargaining mentality’ rather than a security mentality.”
He also expressed American objections to a Syrian proposal that the seven hardened aircraft hangars and five underground structures used for producing the deadly chemicals inside Syria remain “inactivated” rather than be destroyed, as specified in Syria’s original pledge. “These proposed measures are readily reversible within days,” he said.
Earlier Thursday, Mr. Hagel expressed the Obama administration’s frustration with the Syrian government over the chemical weapons issue. He spoke in Warsaw after a meeting with the Polish defense minister, Tomasz Siemoniak.
“The United States is concerned that the Syrian government is behind in delivering these chemical weapons and precursor materials on time, and with the schedule that was agreed to,” Mr. Hagel said.
He also said he had spoken to his Russian counterpart, Sergei K. Shoigu, by telephone on Wednesday, and asked him to use Moscow’s influence with the government of President Assad to speed up compliance.
President Assad said in an interview with Agence France-Presse last week that he partly blamed the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for what Mr. Assad called its slow response to Syrian requests for equipment to safely transport the chemicals. The organization declined to comment on Mr. Assad’s criticism, but nonproliferation experts and diplomats have said privately that Syria had been supplied with everything it needs.
Mr. Hagel did not speak to the precise causes of the delay but reiterated that Syria is responsible, under its agreement to renounce chemical weapons and join the treaty that bans them, to meet its obligations.Mr. Hagel did not speak to the precise causes of the delay but reiterated that Syria is responsible, under its agreement to renounce chemical weapons and join the treaty that bans them, to meet its obligations.
“I do not know what the Syrian government’s motives are, or if it was incompetence or why they are behind on delivering these materials,” he said. “What we do know is they are behind. What we do know is they need to fix this. That’s what we are all working together to address.”“I do not know what the Syrian government’s motives are, or if it was incompetence or why they are behind on delivering these materials,” he said. “What we do know is they are behind. What we do know is they need to fix this. That’s what we are all working together to address.”
Mr. Hagel expressed guarded hope that the pace could accelerate. Under Syria’s agreement, the entire arsenal must be destroyed by June 30.Mr. Hagel expressed guarded hope that the pace could accelerate. Under Syria’s agreement, the entire arsenal must be destroyed by June 30.
“We believe that this effort can continue to get back on track even though we are behind schedule,” Mr. Hagel said.“We believe that this effort can continue to get back on track even though we are behind schedule,” Mr. Hagel said.