The OPCW-UN Joint Mission has confirmed that the Syrian government has delivered the 13th and 14th consignments of chemicals to Latakia, both of which were removed from the port. The two consignments were delivered to Latakia on 10 and 13 April, respectively, and immediately boarded onto cargo ships.



The two consignments raised the overall portion of chemicals removed from Syria to 65.1% of the total, including 57.4 % of the Priority 1 chemicals.



Noting the latest consignments, Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü said the removal of chemicals had fallen behind the revised schedule submitted to the OPCW by Syria under which the government committed to completing the process by 27 April, and that there is no margin for any further delays.



“Both the frequency and volumes of deliveries have to increase significantly to restore alignment of actual movements against the projected time frame,” the Director-General said. “I stress this point because only 11 weeks remain before the expiry of the deadline for the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons programme on 30 June 2014.”



For more on the OPCW in Syria, visit: http://www.opcw.org/special-sections/syria-and-the-opcw/

Please note: This is an updated version of the original text of this post, which reported that a 13th consignment of chemicals had been delivered to Latakia and removed from Syria. In reality, that report inaccurately treated two separate consignments, the 13th and 14th, as a single delivery. The cumulative percentages of chemicals removed to date remain unchanged. We apologise for the error.