The OPCW-UN Joint Mission in Syria was jointly established on 16 October 2013 by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the United Nations (UN) to oversee the elimination of the Syrian chemical weapons program. The Joint Mission continued the work of the OPCW-UN advance team that had arrived in Damascus on 1 October 2013.
On 7 October 2013, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated that the Joint Mission would eventually have about 100 personnel in Syria, with a support base in Cyprus.[1] In a letter to the Security Council, Ban set out the mission's three phases: establish an initial presence and verify Syria's stockpiles declaration; oversee chemical weapons destruction; and verify destruction of all chemical arms related materials and programs.[1] On 13 October Ban announced that veteran UN diplomat Sigrid Kaag would head the Joint Mission.[2]
By 23 June 2014, Syria's declared stockpile of chemical weapons had been shipped out of the country or destroyed. The Joint Mission officially ended on 30 September 2014.[3] Its successor, the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria, was launched in April 2014.