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In sum, we have three versions of the Assad regime’s compliance to date with its commitment to eliminate its chemical weapons completely by the middle of this year

Varying Assessments of Syrian Chemical Weapons Destruction Status



In his State of the Union address on January 28, 2014, President Obama claimed that “American diplomacy, backed by the threat of force, is why Syria’s chemical weapons are being eliminated.” Not so fast, Mr. President.
It turns out that, in the words of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, the Assad regime has “fallen behind in complying with its international obligations to remove chemical agents and precursor chemicals from its soil.” In remarks to UN correspondents on February 6th, Ambassador Power accused the Assad regime of “foot-dragging.” “By delaying, the Assad regime is only increasing the costs to nations that have made donations for shipping, escorts, and other services related to the removal effort,” Ambassador Power said. “But it also encouraging heightened risks that these weapons will be used again, by regime elements, or will fall into the hands of terrorists.” Indeed, such foot-dragging was mentioned by Obama administration officials only two days after President Obama boasted of the success of his diplomacy in getting Syria to supposedly eliminate its chemical weapons. Robert P. Mikulak, the U.S. ambassador to the international organization that is overseeing the collection and destruction of the Syrian chemical weapons stockpile, accused the Syrian regime of "open-ended delaying" and said that the program "has seriously languished and stalled."

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According to the Obama administration’s own estimates, barely 5% of the Syrian government’s identified chemical weapons stockpile has actually been shipped out of Syria for destruction at sea. None of these caveats were included in President Obama’s misleading State of the Union address. As for the United Nations, which is helping to oversee the destruction program, senior officials acknowledge some problems but remain cautiously optimistic. Although the Assad regime has missed a number of interim milestones, these officials are still confident that the June 30, 2014 date for completing the entire destruction program will be met. “This may be a very tight target, but I believe it can be done with the support of the Syrian Government,” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told a news conference in Sochi, Russia, where he is visiting to attend the opening of the Winter Olympic Games. “I expect that they will do it, and also [have the] full logistical and political support from many countries.” The UN Security Council held closed door consultations on the matter on February 7th, which included a briefing by Sigrid Kaag, Special Coordinator of the Joint Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the UN. While conceding that the Syrian regime missed some interim deadlines, the “delays are not insurmountable,” she told UN correspondents after the Security Council meeting. “The deadline of 30 June 2014 has been stated and reiterated by the Secretary-General that it can be met. That is the important one. We also know there is an acceleration of efforts and there can be an intensification of efforts; and that is our call and that is also what we stated and what we work with the Syrian authorities. There is a clear expectation." Ms. Kaag, unlike Samantha Power, did not think that the Assad regime was deliberately stalling. She also would not address the current statistics on the regime’s progress towards complete destruction of its chemical weapons. “We are expecting a more detailed plan to be submitted, to be shared. So that we can look at the efforts to engage in acceleration and intensification and clearly also the call on volume, systemic, predictable movement is very clear. I am not going to engage into statistics, in numbers. Syrian Arab Republic is accountable to the Chemical Weapons Convention and to the Security Council Resolution 2118. So, it has to meet its commitments." In sum, we have three versions of the Assad regime’s compliance to date with its commitment to eliminate its chemical weapons completely by the middle of this year. President Obama presented the most optimistic picture to the American people. The chemical weapons “are being eliminated,” he said, with no caveats, qualifications or acknowledgements that the Assad regime is seriously behind where it is supposed to be by this time. Officials in his administration, including UN Ambassador Samantha Power, beg to differ, accusing the Assad regime of deliberate stalling and foot-dragging. The United Nations is somewhere in between, acknowledging significant delays but claiming progress and that it still expects the June 30, 2014 deadline for the complete destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons to be met. The least plausible version is President Obama’s, which is almost as misleading as his infamous Obamacare lie that “If you like your plan, you can keep it.”


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Joseph A. Klein, CFP United Nations Columnist -- Bio and Archives

Joseph A. Klein is the author of Global Deception: The UN’s Stealth Assault on America’s Freedom.


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