Inspectors in Syria expect to meet key chemical disarmament deadline

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A wounded Syrian woman walks with her children after airstrikes on a rebel area of the war-torn northern city of Aleppo. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Mourners attend a funeral for men killed during battles with members of the Al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (Mahmud Al-Halabi / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters carry a man’s body at the Aleppo headquarters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria after he was allegedly killed by the AlQaeda-linked group in January. (Medo Halab / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A Syrian man helps an injured resident following an airstrike in Aleppo’s Maadi neighborhood. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A Syrian man reacts after an airstrike by government forces on the city of Aleppo. (Mohammed al-Khatieb / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters inside a building during clashes with pro-government forces in the Sheikh al-Said neighborhood of Syria’s northern city of Aleppo. (Medo Halab / AFP/ Getty Images)

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An opposition fighter runs through a hole in a wall to avoid sniper fire by regime forces during clashes in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo. (KARAM AL-MASRI / AFP/Getty Images)

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Opposition fighters open fire from behind a car during fighting in the Salaheddin district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported fierce fighting in Damascus province between rebels and troops backed by pro-regime militias and fighters from Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah. (KARAM AL-MASRI / AFP/Getty Images)

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A Syrian rebel aims his weapon during clashes with government forces in the streets near Aleppo international airport in northern Syria. (Stephen J. Boitano / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Rebel fighters duck as they run behind a barricade to avoid being fired at by Syrian government forces in the Old City of Aleppo. (JM Lopez / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A fighter allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad runs across the street after fighting with rebels in the Yarmouk refugee camp in the capital, Damascus. (Anwar Amro / AFP/ Getty Images)

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A fighter of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command, allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad, jumps through the window of a destroyed building in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus. (Anwar Amro / AFP/ Getty Images)

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An opposition fighter runs in front of a sniper curtain in the industrial area of Syria’s eastern town of Deir Ezzor during clashes with government forces. (Abo Shuja / AFP/ Getty Images)

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Free Syrian Army fighters clean their weapons and check ammunition at their base on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria. (Khalil Hamra / Associated Press)

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Syrian government forces patrol the Khaldiyeh district of Syria’s central city of Homs. The Syrian government announced on July 29 the capture of Khaldiyeh, a key rebel district in Homs. (Joseph Eid / AFP/Getty Images)

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A Syrian national flag is waved in Damascus to show support for President Bashar Assad. (Louai Beshara / AFP/Getty Images)

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A rebel fighter takes aim at regime forces in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. (Louai Abo Al-Jod / AFP/Getty Images)

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A man stands near destroyed buildings after reported airstrikes by Syrian government forces in the rebel-held northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. (Abu Amar Al-Taftanaz / AFP/Getty Images)

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Mustafa Abu Bekir, 23, second from left, meets relatives after crossing the Turkish Cilvegozu gate border. Abu Bekir said he was severely wounded by a bomb dropped from a Syrian army warplane while fighting with the Free Syrian Army in Idlib. (Gregorio Borgia / Associated Press)

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A man carries a boy who was severely wounded during heavy fighting between Syrian rebels and troops last year in Idlib. (Rodrigo Abd / Associated Press)

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Syrian President Bashar Assad arrives at a dinner event in Damascus on the last week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (Virginie Nguyen Hoang / AFP/Getty Images)

By Shashank Bengali

Oct. 23, 2013 3:35 PM PT

WASHINGTON — International inspectors expect to destroy Syria’s ability to produce new chemical weapons by Nov. 1, the first major deadline in the United Nations-ordered disarmament of Syria’s chemical arsenal, officials said Wednesday.

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the watchdog group overseeing the disarmament, said equipment used to produce or mix toxic gases and nerve agents has been destroyed at almost all of the declared facilities in Syria.

OPCW spokesman Michael Luhan said Syrian authorities continued to provide “complete” cooperation to its team of 27 inspectors, and that the group was confident of achieving the first major milestone in the disarmament plan before the deadline.

Syria “will no longer have the capability to produce any more chemical weapons, and it will no longer have any working equipment to mix and to fill chemical weapons agent into munitions,” Luhan said at a news conference in The Hague.

The positive report reflected continuing progress in the U.S.-backed plan to destroy, dismantle or impound President Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons stockpile by mid-2014.

Since arriving in Syria this month, OPCW inspectors, escorted by Syrian forces, have visited 18 of 23 chemical weapons sites disclosed by Assad’s government and have had “good access” to the facilities in government-controlled areas, Luhan said.

But inspectors have yet to visit any sites in areas held by rebels battling to overthrow Assad, Luhan said. Last week, OPCW chief Ahmet Uzumcu said that inspectors had to cancel a visit to at least one abandoned site in a rebel-held zone because they were unable to obtain security guarantees.

Disabling the production and mixing equipment so far has involved low-tech methods such as smashing machines, clogging them with concrete or running over them with heavy vehicles. Officials still don’t have a clear plan for tackling the more complicated task of destroying or seizing Assad’s existing stockpile of sarin, mustard gas, VX and other toxins, which U.S. officials estimate to amount to about 1,100 tons.

Norwegian officials said Tuesday that they were considering a request by the U.N. and the OPCW to take most of Syria’s chemical stockpile to Norway for destruction.

On Wednesday, NATO and Russian officials signaled for the first time that they would be willing to cooperate in eliminating the chemical weapons in Syria. Despite the mistrust between Russia and the alliance, officials said after a meeting of defense chiefs in Brussels that the two sides could work together in destroying the chemicals if asked by the United Nations.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in Brussels that disarming Syria was one of “many areas of common interest” for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Russia. Aside from the U.S., Russia is the only country with the ability to destroy the chemicals on a large scale.

“If we can continue to see progress made, and I believe everybody believes we can, in destroying chemical weapons in Syria, then it seems to me that this is going to open opportunities for a lot of nations to play roles in Syria in order to accomplish the objective,” Hagel said.

Moscow previously said that it would be willing to guard weapons sites and destroy Assad’s stockpiles, but not to take the weapons into Russia. U.S. law prohibits the import of chemical weapons, and Hagel said that there were “no plans to have any U.S. forces in any way in Syria.”

Russia, Assad’s most powerful backer, brokered the deal with the United States last month that calls for Syria to eliminate its chemical weapons. The agreement shelved a U.S. threat of airstrikes against Assad’s government as punishment for an Aug. 21 chemical attack in opposition-controlled areas that U.S. officials say left more than 1,000 people dead.

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Inspectors in Syria expect to meet key chemical disarmament deadline

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