Thursday, October 17, 2013

Blog 6 Disposal of Chemical Weapons in Syria Progress

Brittany Brooks
Blog
10/17/13
8:18 pm

The organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has reached 11 of Syria’s 20 sites. They have been able to verify the contents and destroy equipment at six of the locations. They are working with the United Nations to dismantle Syria’s toxic arsenal because of a resolution that was anonymously approved last month. Before that President Obama had threatened military strikes against Syria because of the August 21 chemical attacks near Damascus that killed hundreds of people. At the United Nations, the Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, announced that he had appointed Sigrid Kaag to lead the joint mission in Syria which must oversee the destruction of the Syrian arsenal by the middle of 2014. Sigrid Kaag is a career diplomat that is fluent in five languages including Arabic. Ms. Kaag is a native of the Netherlands and is an assistant secretary general at the United General at the United Nations Development Program. She has also held many other positions since 2004.
It seems to be that Syria has complied thus far with turning over their sites with chemical weapons. Will they continue to be compliant when their chemical weapons are all destroyed? Do they believe they were in the wrong or are they going along with all of this so they do not face the consequences such as the United States forcing military action upon them? Once this is all said and done will Syria be a safe place to live again or will the native Syrians never return? These are all such important questions for Syria. Ms. Kaag seems to be a very qualified person for making sure that this job with Syria get completed in a timely matter.   

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