A man reacts amid debris after what activists said was a barrel bomb attack by regime forces in Al Shaar neighbourhood of Aleppo yesterday.
AFP
Syria still holds around 8% of its chemical weapons material, missing a deadline to remove or destroy it all, the mission overseeing the destruction of its arsenal said yesterday.
Despite the slip, the head of the mission, Sigrid Kaag, said she was still hopeful a June 30 deadline for the complete destruction of the chemical arms would be met.
Parliament meanwhile announced that four new candidates had submitted applications to run in Syria’s June 3 presidential elections.
On the ground, at least 21 people were killed when rebels carried out a mortar attack on regime-held parts of the northern city of Aleppo, a monitoring group said.
Kaag told reporters in Damascus that 7.5-8% of Syria’s declared chemical weapons material remained in the country, at “one particular site”.
“However, 92.5% of chemical weapons material removed or destroyed is significant progress,” she said.
“We also however need to... ensure the remaining 7.5-8% of the chemical weapons material is also removed and destroyed.”
Under a US-Russian deal negotiated last year, Syria signed up to the Chemical Weapons Convention and agreed to hand over its entire chemical arsenal by June 30 of this year.
Kaag acknowledged the security challenges facing the mission, but said Syria was required to meet its commitments nonetheless
“Success is around the corner and this last push is very much needed,” she said.
“The 30 June deadline is around the corner... and we are hopeful that this is possible and will be met.”
Meanwhile a lingering dispute remains over whether Syria will have to destroy 12 remaining chemical weapons production sites.
Damascus wants to seal the sites, which it says have already been rendered unusable, but Western countries want them completely destroyed, fearing that they may be reopened in the future.
There are also questions over alleged chlorine gas attacks in Syria in recent weeks, which the regime blames on a jihadist group but activists say were carried out by government forces.
Syria’s government agreed to turn over its chemical arsenal last year as Washington threatened military action after a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus that reportedly killed some 1,400 people.
Activists and much of the international community blamed the attack on the regime, which denied responsibility.
Parliament speaker Mohamed al-Lahham yesterday said four more candidates would stand in the June 3 presidential election, bringing to six those competing against President Bashar al-Assad.
Assad, who has strongly suggested he will run, is widely expected to win the election although he has not yet announced his candidacy.
The four candidates announced yesterday are Sawsan Haddad, Samir Maala, Mohamed Firas Rajjuh and Abdel-Salam Salameh.
They join a businessman, Hassan Abdullah al-Nuri, and independent MP and former communist Maher al-Hajjar as candidates.
The candidates are mostly unknowns, with few details immediately available about their backgrounds or political leanings.
In northern Aleppo meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a mortar attack by rebels on government-held parts of the northern city killed at least 21 people.
