Syria Just Missed the Deadline to Turn Over Its Chemical Weapons

In September, the United Nations, the US, and Russia made a deal with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that he would destroy the 1,000 tons of lethal chemicals currently stashed in his country—one of the largest stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in the world. That was the easy part. Sticking to the plan? Not so much.

Syria missed the deadline today for transporting the munitions stockpile to the coast so it could be shipped out of the country. Under the internationally brokered deal, Assad’s government was supposed to move out the “most critical” weapons by December 31 and eliminate the arsenal altogether by the middle of next year.

So why did Syria blow the midway deadline? Well, the international watchdog group charged with keeping the plan on track, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemicals Weapons (OPCW), blamed security concerns, bad weather, logistical complications, and “technical difficulties” for the delay.

After all, the Middle Eastern country is in the middle of a violent civil war. To get the toxic gas to the port it has to be transported on trucks down government-controlled roads, and officials worry about a rebel ambush, or even an accident or friendly fire that could set off the explosives.

“The chemicals aren’t in their final state … but still, mustard will be transported and mustard is ready to use, and it’s dangerous to people living nearby,” Ake Sellstrom, head of the UN team of chemical weapons inspectors said in an interview on NPR today. “No one is blaming Syria for not cooperating,” he added.

Not everyone is so sure—and it’s certainly possible international groups are hedging to avoid inflaming a sensitive diplomatic issue. US officials, by contrast, didn’t shy away from pointing fingers at the Syrian government itself. "It was the Assad regime's responsibility to transport the chemicals to the port safely, to facilitate their removal," State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told press yesterday. "We expect them to meet that obligation."

Going even further, State Department officials speaking anonymously to the Washington Post said Syrian forces made no effort to load the trucks supplied by Russia to transport the weapons. But the officials stopped short of suggesting the government was intentionally dragging its heels, adding we’re “not ready to ascribe a political motive" to the delay.

And to its credit, Syria did meet the deadline this fall to halt its program for producing more weapons, destroying the mixing equipment used to make sarin gas with blowtorches and high-speed saws.

There's also the consideration that even without any political resistance or bloody combat, there's nothing particularly easy about destroying lethal chemicals. The UN framework for disposing of Syria’s arsenal is complicated. First, OPCW officials trained Syrian forces how to package and load up the one- and two-ton containers of toxic weapons—not exactly a simple operation, not least because of potential interference from extremist rebel forces and terrorist groups who did not agree to go along with the UN plan. “This is not a process where you wait for a sunny day and then get it all done. You need to get moving,” the state department official told the Post.

Once the containers of munitions get safely to the coast, the plan is to ship them to the port city of Latakia, transfer them to Danish and Norwegian ships to be taken to an Italian port, then move them onto an American ship equipped with the technology to destroy the weapons out at sea via hydrolysis—a method that uses chemicals to neutralize the toxins.

The hydrolysis method was chosen after several countries were asked to receive the stockpile for destruction on land, and all of them refused. It requires special equipment from the US military that basically functions like a floating chemistry lab, and comes with its own share of controversy over possible environmental and safety hazards.

But the process will stay on pause until Syrian officials pack up the 500 tons of deadly weapons. And if they don’t? The US has suggested in the past it would consider military action if Syria didn’t hold up its end of the bargain, but that threat didn’t resurface even after it became clear today’s deadline would be missed.

A new target date for shipping out the toxic chemicals hasn’t been set yet—the OPCW will meet on January 8 to discuss and report back to the UN. In the meantime, officials insist they’re confident the overall plan is still on track. "It was always an ambitious timeline, but we are still operating on the June 30th timeline for the complete destruction," said Harf.

@meghanneal