Both United States and Russian officials now believe that most of Syria’s nerve agent stocks actually consist of “unweaponized” liquid precursors. Officials have stated that these kinds of weapons can be neutralized quite quickly, which lowers the risk of having the weapons stolen away, or even hidden by the regime.

According to a confidential assessment made by both Russia and the US, the stockpile that makes up Syria’s entire arsenal could be taken cared of and destroyed in 9 months. This is of course, under the assumption, that Syria officials actually honor their promise of relinquishing control of their chemical assets to their international inspectors.

The recently concluded assessment was considered to be the most authoritative one ever conducted and is also reflective of the consensus views of Us and Russian analysts. Both governments compared information on Syria when they met for a series of meetings in Geneva just this month. The current US administration has made sure to brief independent experts on their most recent findings.

Information regarding Syria’s stockpile has been strengthened due to the Damascus government’s own accounting. They have listed every type of chemical agent, as well as the delivery system that each agent has. This information was presented to the Organization of Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in Hague. After the Syrian inventory was released, the U.S. officials quickly reviewed it.

So far, there has been no comment from the White House about the recent assessments, which have been kept confidential due to the intense negotiations at the United Nations on what to do with Syria’s stockpile of weapons. Five permanent members of the UN security council agreed on a resolution that will require Syria to surrender all of their chemical weapons.

Syria was known to have one of the world’s largest chemical weapons program.