ANKARA
Director General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Ahmet Uzumcu stated that him and the Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki-moon have sent three letters to the Syrian administration regarding not to use chemical weapons.
Uzumcu reminded the reports which stated that Syria had developed its system of producing chemical weapons years ago and said, "When we consider the information of open sources, it is reported that approximately Syria has 1,000 tonnes of chemical weapons."
An intergovernmental organization, the OPCW based in The Hague, Holland prohibits the use of chemical weapons and require and trace their destruction. The Director General of OPCW Uzumcu replied to the questions of AA about the allegations on Syria's chemical weapons.
He stressed that there is information pollution on chemical weapon allegations and said that as an organization, they do not have independent information sources.
He said that they receive information from open sources as well and stated, "When we consider the information of open sources, it is reported that approximately Syria has 1,000 tonnes of chemical weapons. There are reports which express that these weapons mostly affect nerves. Reports also state that chemicals are mostly used in cannon balls and as a cap on missiles. There are no possibilities that we can control nor verify these information."
Uzumcu noted that the use of chemical weapons are contrary to law and said that because of the Damascus management accede to 1925 Geneva Convention, they obligate to not to use chemical weapons. Uzumcu said, "If they do possess any, we expect them access to the convention and destruct them under our inspection."
He added that for the destruction of all chemical weapons all around the world, works continue and stated that the U.S. and Russia have the largest chemical weapon stocks.
He expressed, "Destruction of the 90 percent of U.S. stock has been achieved. 70 Percent of Russian stock has been destructed. In the next 5 years, the abolishment of all these stocks will be completed. There is a little bit of them in Iraq and they will be destructed too."
