(ANSAmed) - ROME, MARCH 12 - Rocket-launching from a
considerable distance hit the Syrian coastal city of Latakia on
Sunday, on the day of a transfer to its port of a chemical
weapons consignment slated for destruction, reported
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
sources to ANSA on Wednesday.
Another consignment has been postponed for security reasons.
The quantity of chemical agents handed over on Sunday, March
9, was limited. So far only 23% of the total Priority 1 (the
most dangerous) ones have been loaded onto the Danish cargo ship
Ark Futura, which will take them to the southern Italian port of
Gioia Tauro to be transferred to the US ship Cape Ray and
destroyed in the open seas. Some 55% of Priority 2 chemical
materials have been loaded onto the Norwegian cargo ship Taiko.
The consignments are being handed over very slowly - though
the pace has picked up recently - and many deadlines set by the
OPCW in November for the dismantling of the Syrian regime's
chemical arsenal have already passed. The Syrian authorities
have repeatedly been urged to speed up the transfer of the
chemical agents from several storage sites in the country to the
Latakia port. (ANSAmed).
