Watchdog Says Syria Has Been "Cooperative" on Weapons GENEVA - The head of the international watchdog overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal said Wednesday that a team of 15 inspectors had begun to visit sites and that the Syrian authorities had been "quite constructive" and "cooperative." The official, Ahmet Uzumcu, director general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said completing the work within the "extremely tight" deadline of mid-2014 agreed on by the United States and Russia would depend on whether temporary cease-fires could be arranged between government and opposition forces. "If we can ensure cooperation by all parties, and if some temporary cease-fires could be established in order to permit our experts to work in a permissive environment, I think the targets could be reached," Mr. Uzumcu said, delivering his first public comments on the issue at a news conference streamed live from the organization's headquarters in The Hague. Inspectors, supported by United Nations personnel, have already visited one site and were set to visit another on Wednesday, said Mr. Uzumcu, a Turkish diplomat who has led the organization for several years. He noted that they would visit a total of around 20 in coming weeks. The sites would be those identified by the Syrian government in a preliminary inventory of its chemical weapons program presented to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons last month. The disclosures were made to meet the requirements of a United Nations Security Council resolution that warded off an American military strike after an August poison gas attack in the suburbs of Damascus that killed hundreds of people. American officials had estimated that Syria had at least 45 chemical weapons sites before it started moving munitions and consolidating to increase security. American officials have said that while the Syrian government's preliminary inventory was more extensive than some anticipated, it was not complete. "Whether there has been sufficient cooperation is an open question," a European diplomat in The Hague said Wednesday in a telephone interview, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with diplomatic practice. The Syrian government is to submit a more formal declaration by Oct. 27, which will be scrutinized for holes. "That will give us some ability to say how serious they are," the diplomat said. The declaration is expected to lay out the full history of Syria's chemical warfare program, providing details on all sites involved in researching, producing or storing its arsenal. It is also supposed to lay out a plan for completing destruction, which will be monitored by the international inspectors. The first team of inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons arrived in Damascus last week. By Sunday, the team reported that it was already overseeing the destruction of "category 3" weapons, meaning missile warheads, aerial bombs and systems for delivering chemical agents as well as equipment for mixing and producing them, a process that is to be completed by the end of this month. Underscoring the speed with which the program is unfolding, a second team of around 12 inspectors was expected to arrive in Damascus on Wednesday. "The teams have jelled very well," Michael Luhan, a spokesman for the organization, said in a telephone interview. We're happy with the way things are moving. In an Oct. 7 report to the United Nations Security Council, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged that the most difficult phase of work would start in November, when the teams of inspectors and United Nations personnel - a total of about 100 people - turn to the task of destroying an estimated 1,000 tons of precursor chemicals and weapons. To do so, they will have to cross front lines between the warring parties and in some cases through territory controlled by opposition groups, Mr. Ban noted. The precursor chemicals may not be lethal or dangerous to move, disarmament analysts say. American officials have said the United States could provide a mobile system developed by the Pentagon for neutralizing the precursor chemicals, which could be located outside Syria. A far more complex challenge will be moving and destroying deadly agents like sarin, VX nerve agents and mustard gas in the middle of Syria's violent conflict. Diplomats say Syria is consulting with a number of states that are party to the international convention on chemical weapons, almost certainly including Russia, its closest ally and patron, but the upshot of those deliberations will likely be known only when it submits its formal declaration later this month. The convention, which Syria agreed to join while under threat of an American strike, prohibits movement of these deadly agents outside the country that holds them. But the Security Council resolution setting the deadline for destroying Syria's arsenal also provides for extraordinary measures, taking account of the unique circumstances in which the program is being attempted.