The United States is doubtful whether the whole chemical stockpile of Syria has been removed or not, according to the U.S. Secretary of State on Monday, SIA reports quoting the Anadolu Agency.
While the U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry congratulated the joint UN-Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) mission for the removal of the last 7.2 percent of Syria's "declared" chemical weapons stockpile, he left a question mark on the possibility of other chemical weapons remaining in Syria.
Kerry said that even if the UN-OPCW has removed 100 percent of the "declared" weapons, he added that their work is not finished concerning Syria's chemical weapons program.
"The international community has questions with regard to some of Syria's declaration, and those still have to be adequately answered," said Kerry on Monday implying suspicion on the issue.
Marie Harf, State Department Deputy Spokeswoman, reimplying this doubt, said on Tuesday that the word "declared" is key in this respect.
"We really need to undertake some further review here to achieve confidence that we've been able to get all the weapons out because we never take the Assad regime at its word given its history of deception and violence," said Harf.
Harf stated that the inspection and verification work will continue inside Syria and that the removal of the chemicals is only one part of the OPCW mission. She added that the other aspect includes the inspection and verification inside Syria which will be undertaken to check the accuracy of the mission.
"The process continues, the OPCW and the international community really have the lead here on reviewing and verifying both the accuracy and also the completeness of Syria's declarations on its chemical weapons," Harf said referencing the intelligence that the U.S. has gathered on chemical weapons in Syria.
"We will continue evaluating. We will continue looking at the information. If there is anything else, we'll get it out of the country," said Harf.
Syria accepted a removal plan in 2013 following an alleged chemical gas attack by the regime, in which nearly 1,500 civilians, including women and children, died in the Ghouta suburbs of the capital Damascus on August 2. Syria has been gripped in an ongoing civil war since 2011, which has killed over 100,000 people and displaced almost half of the population, according to the U.N.
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