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Damascus to comply with UN on arms plan

Syria says it will commit to a plan to remove its chemical weapons arsenal as soon as it has approval from the UN.

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Source: AAP


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Damascus will commit to a US-Russian plan to eradicate its chemical weapons once it has United Nations approval, Syria's information minister says.

His regime has already begun preparing the relevant documents, Omran al-Zoubi told British news network ITN on Sunday.

"Syria is committing itself to whatever comes from the UN," he said.

"We accept the Russian plan to get rid of our chemical weapons. In fact we've started preparing our list.

"We are already documenting our papers and we have started to do our job," he added. "We don't waste time."

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Zoubi's comments come a day after US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov announced an ambitious deal to dismantle and destroy Syria's chemical arms stockpile by mid-2014.

Syria will implement the US-Russian deal when it "turns into something more concrete" following a UN Security Council vote, Zoubi said.

"For 40 years Syria has always been trusted once it has committed itself."

Zoubi vowed that war-torn Syria would "absolutely" grant access to weapons inspectors, saying the country "respects and honours what it says".

"We take this agreement very seriously," the minister said.


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