VOA News, 17 Oct 2013 – The chemical weapons experts tasked with ridding Syria of its arsenal say security is a concern after car bombs and mortar attacks hit near the team’s Damascus hotel.

Malik Ellahi, a senior official at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, told reporters Thursday that so far security issues have not kept inspectors from doing their work.

He said teams have visited 11 sites declared by Syria to be part of its chemical weapons program, and have destroyed equipment at six of them. They are due to complete that phase of their mission by November 1, and destroy all of Syria’s chemical weapons by the middle of next year.

Meanwhile, Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil said a long-proposed peace conference is scheduled to take place November 23-24.

He said during a news conference in Moscow the talks are as close as ever to happening, and that they would take place in December if not next month.

The United States and Russia have been trying for months to bring the Syrian government and opposition together to find a negotiated political solution to the crisis. Proposed timeframes for the talks have been repeatedly scrapped as disagreements continue over who will take part and under what conditions.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters