Syria hands over remaining chemical stockpile, West sceptical

Containers on the Ark Futura, a Danish-chartered cargo vessel, carry precursors to sarin gas, part of the effort to extract chemical weapon stockpiles from Syria, in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, May 13, 2014. REUTERS/Staff

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Syria on Monday handed over the remaining 100 tonnes of toxic material it had reported to the global chemical weapons watchdog, but Western governments said it was too early to declare the country free of weapons of mass destruction.

The delayed final consignment, roughly 8 percent of a total 1,300 tonnes Syria declared to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), had been held at a storage site which the government of President Bashar al-Assad said it had been unable to access due to fighting with rebels.