WEAPONS
Norway rules out taking Syria’s weapons
Norway said Friday it would not be able to accommodate a request from the United States to help destroy Syria's chemical arsenal on its soil, saying the schedule was too tight.
Published: 25 October 2013 22:47 CEST
An OPCW team gets to work on chemical weapons in Syria - Syria TV
"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 Børge Brende said.
Brende said the decision was based on the tight schedule — everything must be destroyed by the middle of next year — as well as technical and legal
constraints.
The UN Security Council adopted its Resolution 2118 in September, demanding the destruction of Syria's entire chemical arsenal, estimated at about 1,000 tonnes, by June 30 next year.
The resolution was a last-minute measure to prevent US air attacks on Syria in retaliation for the regime's alleged use of the weapons against its own people.
Brende had said on Wednesday his government was studying "very seriously" a US request to accept components from the Syrian arsenal for destruction on Norwegian soil.
But even then, the Norwegian minister had pointed out obstacles to meeting the request, including the absence of expertise and the lack of infrastructure needed for a task such as this.
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