The United Nations has confirmed Assad will fail to meet a deadline later this month for the removal and destruction of his regime’s entire chemical stockpile. But Sigrid Kaag, head of the joint mission overseeing the stockpile’s removal, said major progress has been made.

Sigrid Kaag: “The deadline will not be met. But it is important, however, that all the materials are out of harm’s way, and the destruction can start as soon as possible aboard the U.S. ship, as considerable time has lapsed, and considerable cost and time and investments have been made to get the job done. Equally so, I’d like to underline that significant progress has been attained over an impossible period of time, nine months.”