CRI听力:Syrian Chemical Weapons Transfer Initiated

The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirms a Danish vessel loaded with the first batch of chemical weapon material is to transfer them to locations outside its territory for destruction.

Farhan Haq is the Acting Deputy Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General.

The vessel has now left the port of Lattakia for international waters. It will remain at sea awaiting the arrival of additional priority chemical materials at the port. Maritime security is being provided by naval escorts from the People's Republic of China, Denmark, Norway and the Russian Federation.

The chemical weapons will be taken to a port in Italy where they will be loaded onto a U.S.-owned cargo ship to be destroyed in international waters.

The removal coincides with an upcoming international meeting aimed to end the fighting inside Syria.

The so-called Geneva Ⅱ meeting has been set for January 22nd and invitations are being sent out to participating countries.

Damascus says it will send a political delegation to the meeting, but warns there will be not talks with the opposition if militant factions are involved.

Omran al-Zoubi is the Syrian information minister.

"What is the basic idea behind Geneva? It is for dialogue, and there is a consensus that the dialogue is going to be among Syrians. If the dialogue among Syrians is not going to succeed in Geneva, which we do not hope to happen, it will succeed in Damascus."

Omran also affirms any agreement reached in Geneva must go through the public referendum in Syria, before being implemented.

The meeting has two phases.

First an international high-level format will be held at Montreux, Switzerland, on January 22nd.

Government and opposition delegations from Syria are slated to have direct talks in Geneva two days later.

Participating countries appeared on a list in late December.

Missing from that list is Iran.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has voiced his support for Iran to join the talks though he recognized the country must be admitted by initiating states.

Russia and the US are scheduled to meet on January 13th to determine the issue.

Earlier US Secretary of State John Kerry said Iran can play an important regional role, despite Tehran's lack of an invitation.

Iran has responded saying it's ready to play a constructive role in the meeting.

Syria has recently seen fighting between opposition fighters, some of whom are part of what is known as the Free Syrian Army with others being militant groups from outside Syria.

Against the backdrop of continuous clashes, the United Nations' children's fund says they're seeking 1-billion US dollars for Syria's children.

Patrick McCormick, a UNICEF spokesperson.

"Over one million Syrian refugees are children, of which more than 425-thousand are under the age of five. The vast majority of these refugees have fled either to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and Iraq."

The UN has estimated by the end of 2014, about a quarter of Syrians will be forced to evacuate their homes to escape the civil war which broke out in 2011.

For CRI, this is Alexander Aucott.