Norway rejects US request to destroy Syrian chemical weapons

Norway has turned down a US request to help destroy Syria's chemical arsenal, saying it is unable to meet the deadline laid down in the United Nations-backed disarmament plan

Residents run from a fire at a gasoline and oil shop in Aleppo's Bustan Al-Qasr neighbourhood in 

 

Syria. Photo: REUTERS

By Agencies

11:08AM BST 25 Oct 2013

Norway has rejected a request from the United States to help destroy Syria's chemical arsenal on its soil, saying it did not have the capabilities to complete the task in the given timeframe.

"With the understanding of the United States we have concluded that... it's no longer appropriate to consider Norway as a site for the destruction (of the weapons)," Foreign Minister Boerge Brende said on Friday.

He said the decision was made based on the deadlines laid out in the UN resolution mandating the destruction of the weapons.

Syria agreed to handover its chemical arsenal as part of a UN-backed disarmament bid that averted US military strikes after the August 21 sarin gas attack, which killed hundreds of people.

Mr Brende said the US was looking at other alternatives but did not give details.

The minister said Norway hadn't been able to identify a port that could receive the weapons and didn't have the capacity to treat some of the waste products resulting from the destruction of the munitions.
In a webcast news conference, Mr Brende said both the US and Norway had agreed that there was no point continuing the evaluation of the country as a destruction site.
Norway announced earlier this week that it was one of the nations that had been asked to take part in the destruction of 50 metric tonnes of mixed chemicals in the form of mustard gas and some 300-500 metric tonnes of materials needed to make nerve agents.
The US and Russia have set a mid-2014 deadline for the destruction of Syria's arsenal.
Syria was on Thursday expected to hand over a detailed plan for destroying its chemical arsenal though the UN had not confirmed by Friday morning whether or not they had received it.
Syrian troops were on Thursday closing in on the Damascus suburbs which were hit by chemical weapons in August. The Assad government continues to deny responsibility for the attack.
The Syrian opposition meanwhile said it would meet on November 9 to decide whether to attend a Geneva peace conference that the United Nations is trying to convene in parallel with chemical disarmament efforts