23:56 01/10/2013
© REUTERS/ Bassam Khabieh
NEW YORK, October 1 (RIA Novosti) – An international team of experts on a mission to eliminate Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons opened a logistics base in the capital Damascus on Tuesday, the world’s chemical weapons watchdog said.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which has 189 member states, said in a statement that the Syria team comprised 19 chemical weapons experts and 14 UN officials. They arrived safely in Syria from Beirut, accompanied by Syrian government forces.
Earlier reports said the multinational group included representatives of Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Uzbekistan, China, Canada, the Netherlands and Tunisia.
Within the next few days, the group will focus on planning its further activities and checking information provided by the Syrian government about its chemical arsenal.
According to the UN and OPCW schedule, such preparatory work should be completed within a month.
