100 tons of chemicals packed up, Syria says not safe to move

The global chemical weapons watchdog says the last 100 tons of Syria’s declared stockpile of precursors for poison gas and nerve agents have been packed and are ready for transport but Damascus says it’s too risky to move them.

Syria is already well behind schedule in removing its stockpile of some 1,300 metric tons of chemicals that it declared to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons last year.

All the chemicals were supposed to have been destroyed by the end of June, but that deadline now appears out of reach. The U.S. says it needs 60 days to destroy hundreds of tons of highly toxic chemicals on board a specially equipped ship.

Syria’s civil war has sent millions fleeing and killed more than 160,000 people, activists say.

Fox/AP