Chemical watchdog receives weapons details from Syria, begins examination Syria troops shoot 15 in Sunni village

THE SYRIAN OPPOSITION REJECTED AN OFFER BY IRAN TO BROKER TALKS, SAYING REGIME ALLY TEHRAN “LACKED POLITICAL CREDIBILITY”

DAMASCUS: The international chemical weapons watchdog was examining on Saturday an initial accounting from Syria of its chemical arsenal, as part of a deal that headed off military action against Damascus.

The deal, spearheaded by the United States and Russia, is to be enshrined in a UN resolution, but envoys are struggling to agree on the wording and were to meet for further talks on the text.

The Syrian opposition, which has been sceptical of the Us-russian deal, rejected an offer by Iran to broker talks, saying regime ally Tehran “lacked political credibility.”

Under the deal, Saturday was the tentative deadline for Syria to hand over details of its arsenal. On the eve of the deadline, the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is tasked with dismantling the arsenal, said it had received “an initial disclosure from the Syrian government of its chemical weapons programme.”

A UN diplomat said the OPCW had received the Syrian declaration on Thursday. “It is quite lengthy,” he said.

The OPCW has postponed a meeting of its Executive Council set for Sunday that had been due to discuss how to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons programme. The agreement, worked out as Washington threatened military action in response to an August 21 chemical weapons attack outside Damascus, requires Syria to hand over the whole of its arsenal for destruction.

It has received widespread international support, including from China, whose Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing would “support the early launch of the process to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons.”

Wang also called for the convening of a mooted peace conference in Geneva “as soon as possible.” BEIRUT: Syrian troops backed by pro-regime militia killed at least 15 people in a Sunni village in the central province of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The group said pro-regime forces carried out a “massacre” on Friday using guns and knives to kill residents “Fifteen people were killed -- two women, a child and 12 men -- by regime forces backed by the Popular Committees and National Defence Forces Alawite militias using guns and knives,” the group said on Saturday.