Syria chemical arms removal begins

The team is working under the terms of UN resolution

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Syria conflict

• 'Please let it be over'
• Arms destruction
• Syria's chemical stockpile
• UN report analysis

Disarmament experts from the international chemical weapons watchdog have begun destroying Syria's arsenal, a monitoring official has said.

The operation is being carried out by a team from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The mission was established under a UN resolution passed after agreement between Russia and the US.

The resolution followed international outrage at a chemical weapons attack near Damascus in August.

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Analysis

Jonathan MarcusBBC diplomatic correspondent

So far so good. Syria has joined the Chemical Weapons Convention. It has made its declarations about what it has in the way of munitions and infrastructure.

Now on to destruction.

The first target is to eliminate equipment for producing chemical agents and for filling munitions.

These two categories of equipment must be destroyed by November.

While chemical processes will ultimately be used to neutralise Syria's large stocks of precursor chemicals - the building blocks for militarised chemical agents - brute force may be all that is required for this first stage.

Key components of production facilities can be smashed or otherwise put out of action. So, too, can filling sites for munitions.

The empty bomb or shells can simply be run over with a heavy vehicle. But this is all still uncharted territory - an unprecedented and accelerated programme to rid a country of its chemical weapons arsenal in the midst of a hot civil war.

No wonder then that many experts remain sceptical. The real test of the Syrian authorities' willingness to implement this agreement is only just beginning.

In an interim report, UN chemical weapons inspectors confirmed that the nerve agent sarin had been used in the attack in Ghouta on the outskirts of the city on August 21.

It was estimated to have killed hundreds of people and was blamed by the United States and other Western powers on the regime of Bashar al-Assad. But he accuses Syrian rebels of being behind it.

"Today is the first day of destruction, in which heavy vehicles are going to run over and thus destroy missile warheads, aerial chemical bombs and mobile and static mixing and filling units," a source with the inspection operation told the French AFP news agency.

It is not clear at which of the 19 chemical weapons sites declared by the government Sunday's operation is taking place.

Destruction of the stockpile is not expected to be straightforward as some sites are in combat zones as Syria is still ravaged by civil war.

It is the first time the OPCW - based in the Hague - has been asked to destroy a chemical weapons armoury during a conflict.

The Syrian government gave details of its chemical weapons arsenal last month to the OPCW under the Russia-US agreement which also provided for Damascus to join the Chemical Weapons Convention.

That arsenal is thought to include more than 1,000 tonnes of sarin and the blister agent sulphur mustard among other banned chemicals.

Peace conference

Under the terms of the agreement between the US and Russia Syria's chemical weapons capability should be removed by the middle of 2014.

The speed with which the team has been able to reach the sites and start the process of destruction underlines the urgency of the mission, says the BBC's Anna Holligan in the Hague.

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Syria's chemical weapons

• Syria believed to possess more than 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents and pre-cursor chemicals, including blister agent, sulphur mustard, and sarin nerve agent; also thought to have produced most potent nerve agent, VX
• US believes Syria's arsenal can be "delivered by aircraft, ballistic missile, and artillery rockets"
• Syria acceded to Chemical Weapons Convention on 14 September; it signed Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in 1972 but never ratified

• Syria's chemical weapons stockpile
• How to destroy Syria's chemical arsenal
• Q&A: Syria disarmament deal
• Syria chemical attack: What we know

It was hoped that the new climate of co-operation would help bring about a wider conference in Geneva on ending the Syrian conflict.

UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was quoted on French media on Sunday as saying he was encouraging all parties to come to Geneva in the second half of November but that peace talks were not a certainty.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has meanwhile suggested Germany could mediate to try to end the 30-month-long civil war.

Speaking to Germany's Der Spiegel magazine in an interview to be published on Monday, Mr Assad said he "would be delighted if envoys came from Germany".

But he stressed that Damascus would not negotiate with rebels unless they laid down their weapons.

Mr Assad again repeated his denial that his troops had used chemical weapons, blaming the rebels instead.

More than 100,000 people have died since the uprising began in 2011 and millions more have fled Syria.

U say? So fast? Dem go para ooo