Syrian chemical weapons removal at 65.1 percent as April 27 deadline looms

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, April 14 (UPI) -- The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced Monday that the Syrian government had delivered its 13th and 14th shipments of Syrian chemical weapons to the port of Latakia on April 10 and April 13, where they were immediately loaded onto cargo ships for removal from the conflict-ridden country.

The OPCW-UN Joint Mission confirmed the latest removal, which brings the total chemical removed from Syria to 65.1 percent, including 57.4 percent of the Priority 1 chemicals.

Despite the Syrian government's recent delivery, it has much work to do to complete the removal process by April 27, OPCW Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü cautioned.

"Both the frequency and volumes of deliveries have to increase significantly to restore alignment of actual movements against the projected time frame... I stress this point because only 11 weeks remain before the expiry of the deadline for the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons programme on 30 June 2014.”

UN Security Council Resolution 2118 for the "Scheduled Destruction of Syria's Chemical Weapons" was adopted on September 27, 2013.

[OPCW] [United Nations]