UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon suggested in a report on Tuesday that an operation to remove Syria's chemical weapons had been unnecessarily delayed and urged the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to speed up the process.
Under a deal negotiated by Russia and the United States, Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal after an August 21 sarin gas attack, which killed hundreds of people and led to threats of U.S. air strikes. The Syrian government and rebels blamed each other for the attack.