LONDON — Citing regulatory constraints and time pressures, Norway said Friday that it had turned down a US request to help destroy chemical weapons as part of the effort to dismantle Syria’s arsenal of toxic munitions.
The incoming government of the Conservative prime minister, Erna Solberg, has been considering the request for several weeks, and has conducted “extensive discussions” with the United States, the Norwegian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on its website.
“The two countries have come to the joint understanding that Norway is not the most suitable location for this destruction,” the statement said.
Officials at the US Embassy in Oslo offered no immediate comment on the likely impact of Norway’s decision on the UN-backed plan to destroy the weapons by mid-2014.
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