  If UN inspection teams can remove even one of the sarin
precursors they can all but eliminate Syria’s ability to launch
a chemical attack even before the stockpile is completely
destroyed, said Daryl Kimball. Photo: Reuters  United States and
Russian officials now believe that the vast majority of Syria’s
nerve agent stockpile consists of ‘‘unweaponised’’ liquid
precursors that could be neutralised relatively quickly,
lowering the risk that the toxins could be hidden away by the
regime or stolen by terrorists.  A confidential assessment by
the two governments also concludes that Syria’s entire arsenal
could be destroyed in about nine months, assuming that Syrian
officials honour promises to surrender control of its chemical
assets to international inspectors, according to two people
briefed on the analysis.  The assessment, thought to be the most
authoritative to date, reflects the consensus view of Russian
and US analysts who compared their governments’ intelligence on
Syria during meetings in Geneva this