Syria's OPCW membership to take effect next month

Syria has met its obligations in applying for membership in the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and its membership will take effect Oct 14, a UN spokesperson said Saturday.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed Syria's accession to the OPCW after the world body received additional information it had requested from Damascus, Xinhua reported citing a statement from UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky.

UN associate spokesperson Farhan Haq said Friday the Syrian regime was asked to provide additional information after documents were submitted Thursday to join the OPCW, the implementing authority for the chemical weapons convention.

However, details of the information requested were not released.

"The secretary-general, in his capacity of the depositary of the 1992 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction, has received the formal instrument of accession to the convention by the Syrian Arab Republic," the statement said.

"Pursuant to the convention, any state may accede to the convention at any time," it said.

"The convention will enter into force for the Syrian Arab Republic on the 30th day following the date of deposit of this instrument of accession, namely on October 14 2013."

Earlier Saturday, the UN chief welcomed an agreement reached by Russia and the United States on a framework for Syria to destroy all of its chemical weapons, voicing his hope that the deal will pave the way for a political solution to end the "appalling suffering" of the Syrian people.

After three days of intense negotiations, US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov reached agreement Saturday on a framework to secure and destroy Syria's chemical weapons by mid-2014 and impose UN penalties if the Bashar al-Assad government fails to comply.

The Obama administration has argued for weeks that the United States should launch military strikes against Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons.

After Syria agreed to a Russian proposal to put its chemical weapons under international control, US President Barack Obama asked Congress to delay a vote to allow time for negotiations between Kerry and Lavrov to "bear fruit".