Syria and weapons of mass destruction

An expert team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) arrived in Ukraine to visit the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said the visit to the plant was a "technical mission" aimed at preventing a nuclear accident.

The U.S. has credible information that Russia and Syria are trying to "sanitize" the site of a suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, the State Department has said.

Work on destroying Syria's last remaining chemical weapons production facilities will begin this month and should be completed next year, the UN Security Council heard Wednesday.
      
Dutch diplomat Sigrid Kaag, who leads a UN mission to rid Syria of chemical weapons, told the council that 13 production facilities will be dismantled, Australian Ambassador Gary Quinlan said.

Syria's government said it has turned over all its chemical weapons and adhered to an international treaty, after US accusations that it had carried out several chlorine gas attacks.

The destruction of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal will not be completed before a June 30 deadline agreed after Washington threatened air strikes last year, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has said.

An April 27 deadline for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons to international monitors also expired with Damascus holding around eight percent of its declared material.