March ‘critical’ for Syria arms drive — UN official

UNITED NATIONS/ WASHINGTON — March will be a “critical” month for Syria if it is to maintain its timetable for dismantling its chemical weapons arsenal, the UN official tasked with overseeing the mission said on Wednesday.

“The month of March, as I informed the Security Council, is the critical month to look at continued progress towards the overall deadline,” said Sigrid Kaag, special coordinator for a joint mission by the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to disassemble the weapons.

She made her remarks after briefing members of the Security Council early Wednesday by Damascus towards the goal of destroying or handing over its arsenal of banned weapons before a June 30 deadline.

After Damascus missed several key dates, the UN Security Council last week demanded that it move faster.

Prior to a shipment Monday, the United States estimated that Damascus had shipped out just 5 per cent of its stockpile.

The Syrian government blamed the delays on insecurity in the country, where it is locked in a brutal war with rebels seeking the overthrow of President Bashar Assad.

Kaag said, however, that there has been “an acceleration and an intensification” of effort by Damascus, and that about 35 per cent of weapons material now has been shipped.

“A number of shipments have taken place and will continue to take place,” she said.

“About one-third of Syrian chemical weapons materials has been removed or destroyed, Kaag said.

Over the next few days, she added, “we expect to reach already 40 or 41 per cent, and we look forward to see continued progress.”

Kaag also praised the “unity of purpose and voice of the Security Council” after briefing its members.

Syria agreed to hand over its chemical weapons for destruction after Washington threatened military action in response to a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus in August 2013.

The United States and the Syrian opposition blamed the attack, which reportedly killed hundreds of people, on the Syrian regime.

It denied involvement, but under pressure agreed to dismantle its chemical weapons programme.

Restricting movement

The United States is restricting the movement of Syria’s UN ambassador, limiting him to a 40-kilometre radius around New York City, the State Department said Wednesday.

Officials gave no explanation for the move against Bashar Jaafari but US relations have deteriorated sharply with Damascus since Assad led a crackdown against a pro-democracy uprising in 2011.

“We have delivered a diplomatic note to the permanent representative of the Syrian mission to the United Nations in New York informing him that he is restricted to a 40-kilometre travel radius,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

The note was delivered at the end of February, she told reporters.

Some other countries’ UN envoys face similar restrictions, she said. Envoys from Iran and North Korea are among them.

“So this is not something that is out of the realm of what we’ve done before,” Psaki said.

The Coalition for a Democratic Syria, an association of Syrian-American groups, welcomed the announcement, accusing the diplomat of trying to fuel sectarian divisions among Syrians in his public appearances in the United States.

“This development has been a long-standing objective that the Syrian-American community has been trying to achieve for the past five months,” said Chad Brand, a spokesman for the coalition.

For the past six months, Jaafari “has been conducting a series of propaganda tours across the United States to mislead Americans and sow sectarian discord among Syrian-Americans,” he said.

The United States has closed its embassy in Damascus but has not cut off diplomatic ties with Syria, despite repeated condemnation of the Assad regime.

The US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, who had cultivated contacts with Syria’s opposition, stepped down last week. Ford left the Syrian capital in 2011, when the popular uprising against Assad turned into a bloody civil war.