UN to Boost Syria Chemical Weapons Team

The UN Security Council authorized backing up the operation of dismantling of Syria’s chemical-weapons stockpile with 100 extra international experts.

The plan, proposed by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has suggested maintaining a “light footprint”, deploying only the personnel needed at any given time and operating out of Cyprus and Damascus.
In a letter outlining his plan sent to the Security Council earlier in the week, Ban said he would appoint a “special coordinator” to oversee the joint operation and liaise with the UN, the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the Syrian government.
The OPCW, a relatively small organization with a modest budget, dispatched experts to Syria after a sarin-gas attack killed more than 1,400 people near the Syrian capital in August.
The Security Council’s endorsement of Ban’s plan came via a letter sent to him on Friday, Al Jazeera reported.
“I am very pleased that the Security Council has moved so quickly on my recommendation for a joint mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations,” Ban said in Brunei on Friday.
“This is a sign of the international community’s commitment to eliminate chemical weapons.”