Norwegian FM: Syrian chemicals still loading in ship

OSLO 

Syria's remaining chemical weapons arsenal is still being loaded to a cargo ship, the Norwegian foreign ministry said on Sunday, 

More than 90 percent of Syria's hazardous chemicals have been removed so far, according to a statement released by the foreign ministry of Norway, which has assigned a cargo ship, Taiko, to transport the materials.

The Syrian regime, which already missed the April 27th deadline for the destruction of all its chemical weapons, will assuredly miss the following June 30th one as well, a UN official said last Wednesday.

Sigrid Kaag, coordinator of the mission led by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons as well as the UN, said there still remains 7.2 percent of Syria’s total chemical weapons material in the country.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende urged to immediately step up to the destruction process, in a written statement on Sunday

Syria accepted a removal plan in 2013 following an alleged chemical chemical gas attack by the regime, in which nearly 1,500 civilians, including women and children, died in the Ghouta suburbs of the capital Damascus on August 21 last year.

According to Human Rights Watch, there is strong evidence that the Syrian army has still been using chemical weapons, the last such attacks, registered by the international watchdog having occurred in three towns in northern Syria in mid-April 2014.

Norway and Denmark have been in charge of transporting the chemical out of Syria since January.

www.aa.com.tr/en