Chemical weapons watchdog to meet to discuss Syria

THE HAGUE, Netherlands - The global chemical weapons watchdog has scheduled a meeting to approve a US-Russian brokered plan to rapidly verify, secure and then destroy Syria's arsenal of poison gas and nerve agents.

The 41-nation executive council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is meeting late Friday to sign off on the plan that has been hammered out in nearly two weeks of behind-closed doors negotiations. The discussions have run parallel with talks in New York on the text of a United Nations Security Council resolution that is to underpin the destruction plan.

The text of that resolution was agreed Thursday by the five permanent Security Council members. An OPCW decision on its plan of action would clear the way for a vote on the resolution later Friday.