SYRIA CRISIS: DESTROYING CHEMICAL WEAPONS 'IS DOABLE'

<div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"><img alt="Ake Sellstrom (centre), the head of a UN chemical weapons team in Damascus. Photo: 30 August 2013" height="360" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/69904000/jpg/_69904221_69904216.jpg" width="640" /></div><div class="introduction" id="story_continues_1" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The chief UN weapons inspector says it will be difficult to find and destroy all of Syria's chemical weapons, but he believes it is achievable.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Ake Sellstrom told the BBC much depended on whether Damascus and the opposition were willing to negotiate.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">He said his team concluded after a visit to Syria that the nerve agent sarin was used in an attack in a Damascus area on 21 August.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The UN Security Council is now trying to agree a resolution on the issue.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"><br /></div><div id="story_continues_2" style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Western nations blame government forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the deadly attack in the Ghouta area.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Damascus - backed by Russia - says the opposition forces are to blame.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;"><span class="cross-head" style="color: #505050; display: block; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 16px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">UN disagreements</span></div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Mr Sellstrom told the BBC's Newsday programme that dealing with Syria's chemical arsenal was "doable". "But of course, it will be a stressful work," he added.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"Depending on the position of the Syrian government and the position of the opposition, depending on how much they could negotiate, it could be done.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">"It will be a difficult job." Mr Sellstrom also said his team's report may have contributed to Syria saying it was prepared to give up its chemical weapons.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The report, however, did not apportion blame for the attack.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">On Tuesday, the five permanent UN Security Council members - France, the UK, the US, Russia and China - met in New York to discuss a resolution on making safe Syria's chemical weapons.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">Such a document is seen as a key step in a US-Russia brokered plan under which Syria will disclose its arsenal within a week and eliminate it by mid-2014.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">However, there have already been key disagreements over the wording.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">France, the UK and US want a resolution carrying the threat of military action but Russia opposes this.</div><div style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helmet, Freesans, sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 18px; padding: 0px; text-rendering: auto;">The US and Russia hammered out their plan last weekend after Washington had threatened the Syrian government with military action over a chemical weapons attack in the Ghouta area of Damascus on 21 August.</div>

SYRIA CRISIS: DESTROYING CHEMICAL WEAPONS 'IS DOABLE'

The chief UN weapons inspector says it will be difficult to find and destroy all of Syria's chemical weapons, but he believes it is achi...

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