UNITED NATIONS, October 2 (RIA Novosti) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated the work of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) - UN Joint Mission on Syria was successful, the UN said in a press release issued a day after the termination of the mission.
"Joint Mission has successfully conducted its work over the past twelve months under extremely challenging and complex circumstances," the UN chief was quoted as saying in Wednesday's statement.
Ban also expressed deep gratitude to the Mission's Special Coordinator Sigrid Kaag and all the staff members from the UN and the OPCW for completing the elimination of Syria's chemical arsenal.
The work took place under UN Security Council resolution 2118, the result of cooperation between Syria, Russia and the United States, which required the verification and destruction of Damascus' chemical weapons.
Concluding the statement, Ban stressed the "need for a world free of chemical weapons," and reiterated his call upon all states to accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention.
In August 2013, an unprecedented chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus, killed almost 1500 civilians, leading to aggravation of tensions around the Syrian Civil war, which broke out in 2011. Following a breakthrough deal, brokered by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry, Syria agreed to place its chemical weapons under international control for further elimination. Subsequently, Damascus joined the Chemical Weapons Convention and handed over documents on its arsenal to OPCW.
