Syria Disarmament Plan approved by UN Security Council

The 15-member UN Security Council on 12 October 2013 formally approved a first joint mission to destroy Syria's weapons. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the UN have a team of 60 experts and support staff in Syria destroying Syria's production facilities while the country's civil war rages on.

The mission will have bases in Damascus and Cyprus, where most inspectors will stay unless they are on site visits. A chemical weapons attack in Damascus on 21 August 2013, which left hundreds dead, triggered an international crisis that led to threats of a US military strike against Syrian government targets.

The UN Security Council passed a resolution on 27 September 2013 backing a Russia-US plan to destroy President Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons which ended the threat of military strike against Syria.