DAMASCUS // The Syrian regime still holds about 8 per cent of its declared stockpile of 1,300 tonnes of chemical weapons, the head of an international mission charged with destroying the arsenal said on Sunday.
Sigrid Kaag of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said 92.5 per cent of Syria’s chemical materials had been removed from the country and destroyed.
She said it was “significant progress”, although she called on President Bashar Al Assad’s government to ensure remaining materials would be removed by the end of April.
“I strongly encourage [the Syrian government] to go for that last push that we can really talk of 100 per cent removal and destruction,” Ms Kaag said in Damascus.
Syria missed an April 13 deadline to destroy all its chemical weapons in accessible locations. International experts say that could affect reaching a June 30 deadline to destroy all of its chemical weapons.
Ms Kaag said an important achievement had been made in “permanently closing down production facilities”, adding it came in “a very short period of time and under difficult and challenging security conditions”.
Another 12 chemical weapons production facilities are still being reviewed by the OPCW to see how they will be destroyed, she said.
She said the timely removal of toxic chemicals had become even more pressing to ensure “none of the chemical weapons material falls in the wrong hands,” referring to rebels trying to overthrow Mr Al Assad who include the increasingly influential Al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.
She said fighting in areas where sensitive sites were located could rapidly deteriorate, making a “timely and swift extraction even more” important.
The effort to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal was sparked by an August 21 gas attack near Damascus that killed hundreds of people. The attacks were blamed on Mr Al Assad’s government and brought the United States to the brink of military intervention in Syria. Damascus denied involvement.
In recent weeks, activists have accused government forces of attacking rebel-held areas with poisonous chlorine gas. Syria denies the allegations, and they have not been confirmed by any international organisation.
Ms Kaag acknowledged the reports of renewed chlorine gas attacks but said they were so far “unsubstantiated allegations.”
Also on Sunday, four more candidates announced their candidacy for the presidential election scheduled to be held in June despite the continued fighting across the country between government forces and rebels seeking to oust Mr Al Assad.
The three-year-old civil war has killed more than 150,000 people and driven a third of the country’s population from their homes.
Syria’s opposition have blasted the decision to hold presidential elections amid the conflict, and it is widely expected to return Mr Al Assad to power for a third seven-year term, though he has not yet announced his candidacy.
Six candidates have registered for the June 3 election, including the first woman.
Sawsan Omar Haddad, a 51-year-old engineer from the coastal province of Latakia, registered on Saturday, the parliament speaker Jihad Laham said on state television.
Three who registered Sunday were Samir Ahmed Moalla, a 43-year professor of international law from the southern province of Quinetra; Mohammad Firas Rajjouh, 48, from Damascus; and Abdul Salam Salameh, 43, from the central province of Homs.
Analysts said they had expected at least one candidate to run against Mr Al Assad to give the election a veneer of legitimacy.
Meanwhile, clashes raging through the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday killed at least 24 people and wounded more than 50, activists reported.
The fight for Aleppo is particularly important now, with analysts saying they expect Mr Al Assad’s forces will try wrest as much of the city as possible before election.
Some of the deaths occurred when rebels blew up the industrial chamber and a power station in a blast that rocked the city, said state-run television and activists.
Rebels also fired mortar shells into government-held areas, killing more civilians.
Other deaths occurred as government airstrikes blew apart several residential buildings, burying people, including two children, under the rubble, according to activists and videos uploaded of the events.
The industrial chamber bombing was part of a surge by rebels in Aleppo to push back against government attempts to take opposition-controlled parts of Syria’s largest city.
Rebels dug a tunnel to reach the chamber in government-controlled territory, said Aleppo activist Hassoun Abu Faisal. The building was used by pro-government forces, reported the Syrian Observatory, which has a network of activists on the ground.
Activist Abu Faisal said ultraconservative Sunni fighters had organised a joint campaign since February to push back against pro-Assad forces, who had been encroaching on rebel supply lines in eastern Aleppo.
He said the intensified clashes between rebels and pro-Assad forces have prompted the government to intensify its bombing of rebel-held areas, and some parts of the city now change hands daily.
* Associated Press
