He said 79 casks were filled with dangerous polyethylene glycol, 67 casks contained monoethylene glycol, 25 were filled with monoethanol, 68 – with diethanolamine, and 42 had triethanolamine in them.
According to the diplomat, the chemicals were stashed in a secret cache and guarded by armed terrirosts.
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Syria Baath leadership replaced, rebel PM quits
Syria's ruling Baath party replaced its top leadership in a surprise move on Monday, while in Turkey, interim rebel prime minister Ghassan Hitto announced his resignation.
The political developments come as troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad advanced into the rebel-held Khaldiyeh district of Homs on the 10th day of an assault there.
The Baath party reshuffle, its first since 2005, includes the replacement of Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa, although he will keep that post. Assad urged the party to "develop" and work more closely with the people to help end the country's 27-month war, state media said.
The party's central committee published the names of 16 members of the new leadership, which included none of the party's old chiefs with the exception of Assad, who will remain secretary general. Among those newly elected to the leadership are parliament chief Jihad al-Laham and Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi.
"The party must develop in step with reality on the ground, and promote a culture of dialogue and voluntary action by the people," Assad said, cited by state news agency SANA. He said the party needed "to put in place new criteria for the selection of party representatives, in order for them to be able to achieve (society's) objectives".
Bassam Abu Abdullah, director of the Damascus Centre for Strategic Studies, said the overhaul was the result of deep-seated party discontent.
"There has been a lot of criticism from within the base towards the leadership, which has been accused of being inflexible, both before and since the crisis," he said, of the uprising.
A second analyst noted that the new leaders include a former ambassador, Syria's ex-envoy to Egypt Yussef Ahmad, for the first time.
"They've decided to bring in a younger leadership that is seen as more open to the international community," he said.
The Baath party has been in power since March 8, 1963. The move comes against the backdrop of the ongoing conflict in Syria, which began in March 2011 with peaceful anti-government protests but has become a bloody civil war estimated to have killed more than 100,000 people.
Voice of Russia, TASS, AFP
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