Special to WorldTribune.com

LONDON — Western nations have concluded that the regime of President Bashar Assad was preventing the transfer of Syria’s weapons of mass destruction.

Western diplomats said the Assad regime, despite pledges to the United Nations, has surrendered less than five percent of Syria’s 1,300 ton-chemical weapons stockpile.

The diplomats said Damascus was no longer believed to be cooperating with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

“The Syrian government is slowing down the destruction of its chemical weapons,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

In an interview with Europe-1 radio on Feb. 4, Fabius expressed Western concern that Assad would retain his WMD assets. He cited missed deadlines for the removal of CW to Western ships for destruction at sea.

“Bashar Assad’s government must respect the commitments that it has made,” Fabius said.

So far, Syria, which delivered two shipments in January 2014, has missed
two deadlines over the last week. The diplomats said the rebel war in
northern Syria was no longer a factor in the delays of WMD shipments to the
Syrian port of Latakia.

“They must get the weapons out of Syria,” French Foreign Ministry
spokesman Romain Nadal said.

The United States agreed with the assessment. On Feb. 1, U.S. Secretary
of State John Kerry urged Assad’s ally, Russia, to pressure Damascus to
renew the removal of CW.

The diplomats, however, acknowledged that the West wielded few options
short of military strikes. They said Russia would probably veto any resolution
against Syria at the UN Security Council.

“The prospects are right now that he [Assad] is actually in a
strengthened position than when we discussed this last year, by virtue of
his agreement to remove the chemical weapons, as slow as that process has
been,” U.S. intelligence community chief James Clapper told Congress on Feb.
4.

For its part, Moscow has assured Western nations that Assad would comply
with OPCW. Officials said Assad has approved plans to ship a large amount of
CW agents in February.

“They are ready to complete this process by March 1,” Russian Deputy
Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said.

  Bashar Assad, James Clapper, John Kerry, Latakia, Laurent Fabius, Western diplomats see Assad stalling on removal of chemical weapons