More chemical weapons inspectors on way to Syria

An OPCW inspector at work in Syria on Tuesday (Getty Images)

The chief of the global chemical weapons watchdog has said it is sending a second team of inspectors to Syria to expand its high-stakes, high-risk mission to rid the country of its poison gas stockpile.

Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), spoke to the group’s 41-nation Executive Council at the start of a four-day meeting in The Hague. OPCW inspectors are in Syria to verify and destroy an estimated 1,000 tons of chemical weapons.

Mr Uzumcu called initial Syrian cooperation last week, providing more detail of the country’s chemical weapons and beginning to destroy them and facilities to produce them, “a constructive beginning”.

AP