US Officials: Syria Keeeping 27 Tons of Chemicals; Assad Uses Them as Way to Keep Storage Facilities

U.S. officials revealed today (May 1, 2014) that the months-long effort to dismantle Syria's chemical weapons program has ground to a halt because Syria is holding on to 27 tons of sarin precursor chemicals as leverage in a dispute with the international community over the future of facilities used to store the deadly agents, the Washington Post website reports.

Having turned over all but an estimated 8 percent of its chemical arsenal to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Syria missed a deadline of April 27 to relinquish the remnants of its arsenal, which are stored in 16 containers in Damascus, U.S. officials said.

The OPCW is insisting that a network of tunnels and buildings that were used to store the weapons must be destroyed. The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has argued that the facilities should be repurposed.

"They're just stalling for time to hold on to some of these facilities," said a U.S. official familiar with the matter who would discuss the issue only on the condition of anonymity.