27 September 2013

Editorial: Japan May Help Remove Syria’s Chemical Weapons

By Zachary Keck

The Japanese government is considering the possibility of contributing personnel and other forms of aid to the effort to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapon stockpiles, Kyodo News reported over the weekend.
According to the report, the Shinzo Abe administration has been looking at providing financial aid and members of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the agency responsible for eliminating Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons.
Already, Tokyo has dispatched six staffers, some of whom are SDF members, to the OPCW, and the government is looking into whether it will be possible to send them into Syria to actually help in the removal effort. The report suggested that the SDF members were personnel who had previously worked at OPCW.

Read the full story at The Diplomat