EU offers EUR 12m to destroy Syria chemical arms

(BRUSSELS) - The European Union signed over 12 million euros to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons on Monday to help pay for the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons programme.

The funds had been pledged to the OPCW in December by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to help cover the 25-million to 30-million euro cost of destroying Syria's chemical materials.

They were signed over to the OPCW by the EU's Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, the European Commission said.

Last week, EU foreign ministers agreed to use Syrian funds frozen under the bloc's sanctions to help pay for the dismantling of Damascus's chemical weapons programme -- a move that angered authorities in Damascus.

The EU said the frozen funds of the Central Bank of Syria and of Syrian state-owned entities would be released "in order to make payments on behalf of the Syrian Arab Republic" to the OPCW "for activities related to the OPCW verification mission and the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons."

Syria agreed last year to turn over its chemical arsenal after Washington threatened military action in response to a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus in August.

The regime denied responsibility for the attack, which reportedly killed hundreds of people.

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