Abandoned Barrels Containing Deadly Sarin Seized in Rebel-Held Syria
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon informed Security Council members on Monday that two cylinders reportedly seized by Syrian government forces in an opposition-held region appeared to contain the deadly nerve agent sarin.
According to the letter dispatched by Ban to the UNSC, on June 14 the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) analyzed the contents of the barrels, Reuters reported.
The UN Joint Mission is currently overseeing the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles under the umbrella of the OPCW.
Syria has declared a total of 1,300 tons of chemical agents, and handed over the last portion of its stockpile on June 23 under the agreement reached in September.
"The Joint Mission confirmed that these contained sarin," read Ban's letter. The Syrian government declared the barrels “as abandoned chemical weapons,” which were reportedly seized by government forces in August 2013 within an area under the control of armed rebel groups.
OPCW chief Ahmet Uzumcu did not include in his report the precise date the Syrian government had handed over the two cylinders.
On Monday the US container ship Cape Ray began to neutralize chemical weapons materials according to the Pentagon. Some 600 metric tons of materials, including components for mustard gas and sarin, were transferred earlier in July to the Cape Ray from a vessel that initially transported them from Syria.
The Syrian government agreed last year to dispose of its chemical weapons stockpile, part of a disarmament deal brokered between Assad, the US and Russia following allegations of the regime’s use of deadly agents against civilians. That crisis was triggered after evidence emerged of a potential sarin gas attack last August which killed hundreds of civilians on the periphery of the capital of Damascus.
