Syria hands over "initial" info on chemical weapons

THE HAGUE, Netherlands The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said Friday it had received an "initial declaration" from Syria outlining its weapons program.

Spokesman Michael Luhan told The Associated Press on Friday that the declaration was "being reviewed by our verification division."

Luhan said the organization would not release details of what is in the declaration.

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The organization is looking at ways to fast-track moves to secure and destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles and production facilities.

Members of the United Nations Security Council are currently negotiating the terms of a resolution aimed at detailing the process by which Syria should hand over its chemical weapons to international control for destruction, and what punitive measures -- if any - the Syrian regime should be subject to should they fail to abide by those terms.

The U.S. and Russia, a key ally to the Syrian government of President Bashar Assad, agreed the framework of a chemical weapons handover at a meeting last weekend in Geneva.

Secretary of State John Kerry stipulated that Syria should provide a full accounting of its chemical weapons stockpiles, sites and program within a week.

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Assad: U.N. report on chemical weapons "unrealistic"

Kerry said Thursday that a U.N. inspectors' report on an Aug. 21 attack in the Damascus suburbs "confirms unequivocally that chemical weapons...were used in Syria."

"And despite the regime's best efforts" to destroy the evidence, he added, U.N. investigators "returned with several crucial details that confirm that the Assad regime is guilty of carrying out that attack, even though that was not the mandate of the U.N. report."

The Assad regime, and its backers in Russia, have claimed it was rebel forces who launched the attack on the eastern Ghouta suburbs, whereas the U.S. and its allies insist only the Syrian military has the capacity to carryout such a large-scale attack with sarin gas.