Countdown begins on a tough and dangerous mission

The world is waiting with bated breath to see if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will honour the US-Russia plan for dismantling and destroying one of the world’s largest stockpiles of chemical arms.

The countdown has begun on a dangerous, tough mission to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons, with the regime given just seven days to lift the veil on its secret stockpile and allow inspectors into the war-torn country.

By next Friday Assad faces his first litmus test of the seriousness of his regime’s stated commitment to bring its deadly chemical arms under international control.

The deal hammered out in Geneva has to go first to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to be agreed, but within seven days Assad must put on the table a full declaration of the extent of his long secret programme.

The US believes Syria is dotted with some 45 sites connected to the chemical weapons programme—of which nearly half contain “exploitable chemical agents” for mixing toxic gases.

Questions remain over whether the US and Russia can meet their goal of removing and destroying some 1,000 metric tonnes by mid-2014, but US experts emerging from three days of non-stop talks with Russian counterparts insist it can be done.

The US and Russia are the leading experts in the field, having moved to destroy all their chemical weapons under a 1997 deal, and have even developed a mobile destruction unit which can be placed in a country without the proper facilities.

Some chemical weapons are destroyed through a process known as hydrolysis, in which agents, like detergents, are used to neutralise blistering chemicals such as mustard gas and sulphur. Nerve gases such as sarin are often better destroyed through incineration.

But, production equipment and facilities for chemical weapons have to be destroyed physically and calls for “a big sledgehammer and some other equipment”, as indicated by a US official.

The landmark deal was hailed by the West, but rejected by rebels who warn that it would not halt the bloodshed in the conflict which has killed more than 110,000 people and displaced millions in two and a half years.

The pressure is now on Assad to deliver, with Obama warning that “the US remains prepared to act” if Damascus fails to comply.

Under the plan, arms inspectors and experts must be given immediate access to the sites in question to begin neutralising them and locking them down. And all initial inspections of sites are due to be completed by November.

US officials believe that despite the chaotic battle on the ground, the Assad regime has kept tight control of the chemical weapons stocks and they should have relatively easy access to regime-controlled areas.

But the situation in Syria is unlikely to be easy as the rebels fighting Assad’s regime have greeted the new plan with dismay, fearing it has scuttled any chance of Western intervention on their side.

Every word or action emanating henceforth from Assad will be scrutinised by the entire world. It is a do or die situation for him. The world is waiting.