Syria appeared to have missed a self-imposed deadline to get rid of all its chemical weapons by April 27, as the United Nations announced that more than 92 percent of the arsenal had been shipped out of the country or destroyed.
The U.N. deadline for the total destruction of Syria's chemical weapons is June 30, but the government had vowed to complete the removal of its 1,300 tons of chemical substances on April 27, after missing several deadlines.
Sigrid Kaag, head of the joint mission of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, told reporters in Damascus that the U.N. hoped Syria would meet the June deadline.