International inspectors working to scrap Syria cache of chemical weapons are reporting “encouraging initial progress” in their mission.  The advance team is planning to begin onsite inspections and to begin disabling equipment within a week.

Ending Bashar al-Assad’s capacity to manufacture chemical weapons by 1 November is step one of the disarmament resolution approved by the United Nations Security Council resolution approve last week.  They plan on destroying all 1,000 tons of Syria’s chemical weapons by the middle of 2014, the most daunting task the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has ever faced.

Right now, 19 members of the advance team at staying at a hotel in central Damascus, but more inspectors will join them until around 100 are on the job.

It’s all the result of a deal brokered by the US and Russia to avoid western air strikes against Syria in retaliation for the chemical weapon attack on civilians outside Damascus on 21 August.