Syrian phones and internet cut, while chemical weapons removal faces delays
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Version 0 of 1. Syrian state television says the country's local and international telephone lines as well as the internet are down because of technical problems. The station says technicians are working to fix the problem in Syria's main fibre optic cable. The report gave no further details. Calls were not going through to Syria on Monday afternoon. Canadian network monitoring firm BGPmon said that Syria was hit by a countrywide internet outage affecting more than 90% of the nation's networks at 11.30 Syria time (09.30 GMT). Telephones and the internet have been cut on several occasions since Syria's crisis began in March 2011. Meanwhile the global chemical weapons watchdog OPCW has said that the removal of chemical weapons from Syria may be delayed slightly due to the difficulties of operating during a civil war. Any hold-up should be small and the mid-2014 deadline to destroy these weapons remains realistic, said Ahmet Uzumcu, the head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which has been charged with supervising the destruction of Syria's chemical arsenal. The most dangerous chemical weapons have to be removed by 31 December while weapons in a second category have to be shipped out by 5 February. "In view of the circumstances in this country, it will be quite difficult to meet this timeline," Uzumcu, who is in Oslo to accept the 2013 Nobel peace prize on Tuesday, told a news conference. "There are very demanding timelines that we want to fulfil and I'm confident that the deadline of end of June next year [to destroy the weapons] will be met." The Hague-based OPCW was given the task of overseeing destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stocks following a sarin gas attack on the outskirts of Damascus in August which killed hundreds of people. Uzumcu said difficulties included security, particularly on secondary and access roads to various facilities, and the strict verification process that required extensive cooperation with the administration of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Still, he said the first part of the removal could happen in early or mid January while the second part could be delayed by a "few days". The weapons will be taken out of Syria on a cargo vessel but authorities still have not yet picked the port where their destruction can be carried out. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |