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U.N. Says 16 Containers of Chemical Toxins Still at Inaccessible Site in Syria Ingredients Of Nerve Gas Still in Syria, Official Says
(about 4 hours later)
The final 8 percent of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile that has yet to be exported — about 100 tons — remains inaccessible because it is stored near an area held by insurgents, the United Nations official overseeing the arsenal’s destruction said on Thursday. UNITED NATIONS — The last of the chemicals to be shipped out of Syria contain the ingredients needed to make sarin, the lethal nerve agent used in the attack on a Damascus suburb last August, the United Nations official who is coordinating the arsenal’s destruction said on Thursday.
The official, Sigrid Kaag, said that removal experts would need “less than a working week” to extricate the material once they gain access to the site, which is near Damascus. In all, there are five containers of the most dangerous substances there, and 11 containers of other chemicals needed for the weapons.  The material is stored in an airfield controlled by President Bashar al-Assad’s military forces not far from Damascus, and was transferred there from another site about 19 miles away that has since been overrun by insurgents in the civil war, the United Nations official, Sigrid Kaag, said in an interview.
“We do need that final push to achieve that 100 percent,” Ms. Kaag told reporters at the United Nations. “It is safe and secure,” she said, adding that the approximately 100 tons of chemical substances at the site go into making the nerve agent. “You’ve got the main ingredients, the precursors to produce sarin.”
Ms. Kaag, who spoke after a private appearance at the Security Council, gave previously undisclosed details about precisely what remains of the Syrian chemical munitions stockpile, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad has promised to eliminate. Ms. Kaag said the last batch of the arsenal, which represents about 8 percent of the total declared by the Syrians, cannot be safely extracted yet because the roads to the location have not been secured by government forces. “There is a lot of fighting taking place,” she said. “It’s not a situation where you would want a chemical weapons convoy passing through.”
Under a Security Council resolution, the arsenal must be destroyed by June 30. Critics of Mr. Assad’s government, led by the United States, have accused him of stalling the removal of the final batch of chemicals, which are to be placed aboard ships from Norway and Denmark at the Syrian port of Latakia. The details offered by Ms. Kaag are the most specific yet disclosed about what remains of Mr. Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal, which his government is obliged to eradicate by June 30 under a Security Council resolution. It has become increasingly unclear whether that deadline can be met, and some of Mr. Assad’s most vocal critics, led by the United States, have accused him of procrastinating.
“The ships are waiting,” Ms. Kaag said. “Our Norwegian and Danish friends are waiting.” When she addressed the Security Council earlier in the day, her eighth private briefing about the destruction of chemical weapons since the operation began in October, she said council diplomats echoed that the security concerns were legitimate, based on their own assessments.
She gave no indication that the June 30 deadline was in danger, but there has been growing speculation that it may have to be pushed back. Ms. Kaag said she did not know which armed group or groups controlled areas near the remaining site.
Ms. Kaag said she had made a strong plea to Security Council members with influence over Syria — apparently a reference to Russia — to put pressure the Syrian government so that the removal of the material “can be completed in a timely manner.” The Syrian authorities have told her that military action is underway, she said, and if the route can be secured quickly enough, the government would be able to extricate the chemicals and come close to meeting the June 30 deadline. 
The most dangerous chemicals are to be rendered harmless by a specially outfitted American naval vessel, the Cape Ray, while the rest will be incinerated at facilities in the United States and Europe, under a plan devised by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the group based at The Hague that monitors compliance with the global treaty banning chemical arms. Once the route is safe, “Syrians can very quickly deal with the removal,” she said. “At least there’s a legitimate expectation that the approximate destruction will have taken place around the deadline, which was always ambitious.”
Ms. Kaag would not say which insurgent group or groups in Syria controlled territory that was blocking access to the remaining chemical stocks, nor would she say precisely where in the Damascus area the chemicals are stored. In remarks to reporters after her briefing to the Security Council, Ms. Kaag said that experts would need “less than a working week” to remove the material once they gain access to the site. In all, she said, there are 16 containers.
Mr. Assad agreed to destroy the weapons and join the chemical weapons treaty after an international outcry over an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in the Damascus area, which his government and insurgent groups each blamed on the other. The agreement, negotiated by Russia and the United States, averted a threatened American missile strike on Syrian military targets. “We do need that final push to achieve that 100 percent,” Ms. Kaag told reporters.
Under the plan for eradicating the weapons, the chemical materials amassed by Mr. Assad’s government are to be destroyed abroad, loaded onto ships volunteered by Norway and Denmark at the port of Latakia on the Mediterranean coast.
“The ships are waiting,” Ms. Kaag said.
She said that she had made a strong plea to Security Council members with influence over Syria — apparently a reference to Russia — to put pressure the Syrian government so that the removal of the material “can be completed in a timely manner.”
The most dangerous chemicals are to be rendered harmless by a specially outfitted American naval vessel, the Cape Ray, which has been waiting for weeks to start. The rest will be incinerated in the United States and Europe, under the plan devised by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the group based at The Hague that monitors compliance with the global treaty banning chemical arms.
Mr. Assad agreed to destroy the weapons and join the chemical weapons treaty that bans them after an international outcry over the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in the Damascus area. A United Nations inquiry concluded that sarin had been deployed in that attack, for which Mr. Assad’s government and insurgent groups each blamed the other.
The agreement, negotiated by Russia and the United States, averted a threatened missile strike on Syrian military targets by the United States, which asserted that Mr. Assad’s forces had been responsible for the sarin use.