U.S. skeptical of Syria chemical arms declaration: U.N. envoy

After years of "broken promises" by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the United States is reviewing with skepticism a chemical arms declaration submitted by Syria to a world watchdog, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said on Tuesday. Under a Russian-U.S. proposal, Syria agreed in September to destroy its chemical weapons program by mid-2014, averting a threat of missile strikes by Washington following an August 21 sarin gas attack in Damascus that killed hundreds of people. Syria's submitted the lengthy declaration of its chemical weapons program on October 27 and must agree a plan with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) by mid-November that explains in detail how and where to destroy the poisons, including mustard gas, sarin and possibly VX. She noted that the Assad government had so far cooperated with the joint OPCW/U.N. mission, which has inspected 21 out of 23 chemical weapons sites in Syria.



via Health News Headlines - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/u-skeptical-syria-chemical-arms-declaration-u-n-204459582.html