BEIRUT - Security concerns and bureaucracy have caused President Bashar al-Assad's government to miss Tuesday's deadline for the removal of deadly toxins from Syria under an international effort to remove its chemical arsenal, the global chemical weapons agency said.
Bad weather and a complex multinational procurement effort for equipment have also delayed the operation, an official from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said.
Syria agreed to abandon its chemical weapons by next June under a deal proposed by Russia and hashed out with the United States after an Aug. 21 sarin gas attack that Western nations blamed on Assad's forces.
