U.N. chemical weapons team to leave Syria by Saturday morning: Ban

29 August 2013 10:06 am

U.N. inspectors, in Syria to determine whether forces have used chemical weapons in the civil war, will continue their investigations until Friday and plans to leave by Saturday morning, the U.N. chief said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, speaking in Vienna, said he had spoken to U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday about the situation in Syria, discussing how "we can expedite the process of investigation."

"I have also expressed (my) sincere wish that this investigation team should be allowed to continue their work as mandated by the member states," Ban told reporters on Thursday.

"I told him that we will ... share information and our analysis of samples and evidence with members of the Security Council and United Nations members in general," he said.

U.N. chemical weapons experts began a third day of investigations into an apparent poison gas attack last week which killed hundreds of civilians, visiting rebel-held territory outside Damascus.

"They (the inspection team) will continue investigation activities until tomorrow, Friday, and will come out of Syria by Saturday morning and will report to me," Ban said.

(Reporting By Fredrik Dahl and Eric Auchard; Editing by Jon Boyle)

(Source : Reuters)