Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is holding talks in Russia with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, as the US urges Moscow to stop supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Jim Matiss said: “Our military policy in Syria has not changed.”
Iamge source Times of India
Last week’s air strike has led to confusion over US policy in Syria, with some officials suggesting a more aggressive stance against President Bashar al-Assad.
As they were preparing to meet today, Sergei Lavrov told Rex Tillerson that Russia had “a lot of questions regarding very ambiguous and contradictory ideas (…) coming from Washington”.
Rex Tillerson said he looked forward to a “candid” exchange so that the two countries could better define and narrow their differences.
He has warned that Russia risks becoming irrelevant in the Middle East because of its support for Bashar al-Assad.
The White House also says Russia has been trying to deflect blame for the chemical attack that killed 89 people.
US intelligence reports say the Syrian government used chemical weapons during air strikes on the rebel-held Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun that left 89 people dead.
Syria denies this and Russia has instead blamed rebel forces, which it says were storing chemical weapons which were hit in the raids.
On April 12, the UN Security Council is to vote on a draft resolution by the US, UK and France requiring the Syrian government to co-operate with an investigation into the chemical attack.
President Vladimir Putin has also called for an independent UN investigation.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has said Syrian government deserves credit for so far complying with a chemical weapons deal.
John Kerry was speaking after international monitors began the destruction of Syria’s stockpile.
The mission was established under a UN resolution, which was passed after a deal between Russia and the US.
The initiative followed international outrage at a chemical weapons attack near Damascus in August.
“The process has begun in record time and we are appreciative for the Russian co-operation and obviously for the Syrian compliance,” John Kerry said after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in Bali, Indonesia.
“I think it’s extremely significant that yesterday, Sunday, within a week of the (UN) resolution being passed, some chemical weapons were being destroyed.
“I think it’s a credit to the Assad regime, frankly. It’s a good beginning and we welcome a good beginning.”
John Kerry has said Syrian government deserves credit for so far complying with a chemical weapons deal
The destruction of Syria’s chemical arsenal is being overseen by a team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
An official on the joint OPCW-UN delegation said on Sunday: “The first day of destruction and disabling is over and missile warheads, aerial bombs, along with mobile and static mixing and filling units, were dealt with. Work continues tomorrow and in the next few days.”
The actual destruction of the stockpile, being carried out by the Syrians, is not expected to be straightforward, as some sites are in combat zones.
It is the first time the OPCW – based in The Hague – has been asked to oversee the destruction of a chemical weapons armory during a conflict.
The Syrian government gave details of its chemical weapons arsenal last month to the OPCW under the Russia-US agreement which also provided for Damascus to join the Chemical Weapons Convention.
That arsenal is thought to include more than 1,000 tonnes of sarin and the blister agent sulphur mustard among other banned chemicals.
In an interim report earlier this year, UN chemical weapons inspectors confirmed that the nerve agent sarin had been used in the attack in Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21.
It was estimated to have killed hundreds of people and was blamed by the US and other Western powers on the regime of Bashar al-Assad. But he accuses Syrian rebels of being behind it.
Under the terms of the US-Russia deal, Syria’s chemical weapons capability should be removed by the middle of 2014.
The OPWC monitors have announced that the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons has begun.
The operation is being overseen by a team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
The mission was established under a United Nations resolution, which was passed after agreement between Russia and the US.
The resolution followed international outrage at a chemical weapons attack near Damascus in August.
In an interim report, UN chemical weapons inspectors confirmed that the nerve agent sarin had been used in the attack in Ghouta on the outskirts of the city on August 21.
It was estimated to have killed hundreds of people and was blamed by the United States and other Western powers on the regime of Bashar al-Assad. But he accuses Syrian rebels of being behind it.
Syria’s chemical arms destruction is being overseen by a team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
“Today is the first day of destruction, in which heavy vehicles are going to run over and thus destroy missile warheads, aerial chemical bombs and mobile and static mixing and filling units,” a source with the inspection operation told the French AFP news agency.
It is not clear at which of the chemical weapons sites declared by the government, thought to number about 20, that Sunday’s operation is taking place.
The destruction of the stockpile, being carried out by the Syrians, is not expected to be straightforward, as some sites are in combat zones.
It is the first time the OPCW – based in The Hague – has been asked to oversee the destruction of a chemical weapons armory during a conflict.
The Syrian government gave details of its chemical weapons arsenal last month to the OPCW under the Russia-US agreement which also provided for Damascus to join the Chemical Weapons Convention.
That arsenal is thought to include more than 1,000 tonnes of sarin and the blister agent sulphur mustard among other banned chemicals.
Under the terms of the agreement between the US and Russia Syria’s chemical weapons capability should be removed by the middle of 2014.
Iraqi authorities say they have uncovered an al-Qaeda plot to use chemical weapons, as well as to smuggle them to Europe and North America.
Iraqi defense ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Askari said five men had been arrested after military intelligence monitored their activities for three months.
Three workshops for manufacturing the chemical agents, including sarin and mustard gas, were uncovered, he added.
Remote-controlled toy planes were also seized at the workshops.
Mohammed al-Askari said they were to have been used to release the chemical agents over the target from a “safe” distance of 1.5 km (0.9 miles).
All of the arrested men had confessed to the plot, and said they had received instruction from another al-Qaeda offshoot, he added.
As the defense ministry spokesman spoke on Iraqi TV, footage was shown of four men with black hoods on their heads, our correspondent adds. Three of them were wearing bright yellow jumpsuits and a fourth was in a brown jumpsuit.
Iraqi authorities have uncovered an al-Qaeda plot to use chemical weapons
Their arrests were possible because of co-operation between Iraqi and foreign intelligence services, Mohammed al-Askari said.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq is believed the only offshoot of the Islamist militant network to have used chemical weapons.
It detonated a 16 crude chlorine bombs in Iraq between October 2006 and June 2007.
Chlorine inhalation made many hundreds of people sick, but no deaths resulting from exposure to the chemical were recorded, US officials said at the time. Instead, the bomb blasts are believed to have caused the fatalities.
At the time, US officials said al-Qaeda appeared to want to use debilitating agents like chlorine in their bombs to cause casualties beyond those hit by the initial explosion.
US and Iraqi troops subsequently killed or detained many of the militants who were building the chlorine-laced bombs and seized much of their stockpiled chemicals.
A letter written by the late al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden five days before he was killed in a US military raid in Pakistan in 2011 urged members of the group’s offshoot in Yemen who he believed were considering using “poison” to be “careful of doing it without enough study of all aspects, including political and media reaction”, according to CNN.
Sarin, one of a group of nerve gas agents invented by German scientists as part of Hitler’s preparations for World War II, is an extremely toxic substance that disrupts the nervous system, overstimulating muscles and vital organs.
It can be inhaled as a gas or absorbed through the skin. In high doses, Sarin suffocates its victims by paralyzing the muscles around their lungs. Sarin was called “the poor man’s atomic bomb” due to large number of people that can be killed by a small amount.
One hundred milligrams of Sarin (about one drop) can kill the average person in a few minutes if he or she’s not given an antidote.
Sarin, or GB, or Isopropylmethanefluorophosphonate, is an organophosphorus compound with the formula [(CH3)2CHO]CH3P(O)F. It is a colorless, odorless liquid.
Sarin was discovered in 1938 in Wuppertal-Elberfeld in Germany by two German scientists attempting to create stronger pesticides; it is the most toxic of the four G-agents made by Germany.
The compound, which followed the discovery of the nerve agent tabun, was named in honor of its discoverers: Schrader, Ambros, Rüdiger and Van der Linde.
Sarin is an extremely toxic substance that disrupts the nervous system, overstimulating muscles and vital organs
In mid-1939, the formula for the agent was passed to the chemical warfare section of the German Army Weapons Office, which ordered that it be brought into mass production for wartime use. A number of pilot plants were built, and a high-production facility was under construction (but was not finished) by the end of World War II.
Experts say Sarin is more than 500 times as toxic as cyanide.
Like other nerve agents, Sarin functions by competitive inhibition of the enzyme acetyl cholinesterase. This enzyme is found at synapses and nerve endings where it breaks hydrolyses the neurotransmitter Acetyl choline so that the nerve impulse is only transmitted once as required. When the enzyme is inhibited acetyl choline accumulates at nerve endings. This has various unpleasant effects leading to paralysis (where accumulation occurs at motor neurones) and eventually death by means such as asphyxiation.
Initial symptoms following exposure to sarin are a runny nose, tightness in the chest and constriction of the pupils. Soon after, the victim has difficulty breathing and experiences nausea and drooling. As the victim continues to lose control of bodily functions, the victim vomits, defecates and urinates. This phase is followed by twitching and jerking. Ultimately, the victim becomes comatose and suffocates in a series of convulsive spasms.
Death may follow in one minute after direct ingestion of a lethal dose unless antidotes, typically atropine and pralidoxime, are quickly administered.
Huge secret stockpiles of Sarin were built up by superpowers during Cold War.
Sarin can only be manufactured in a laboratory, but does not require very sophisticated equipment.
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