A young Syrian drinks water from a tank outside a tent at a refugee camp in Qushtapa on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, yesterday.
THE HAGUE: The United States will destroy the most dangerous of Syria’s chemical weapon stockpile on a ship at sea, the world’s chemical watchdog said.
“The neutralisation operations will be conducted on a US vessel at sea using hydrolysis,” the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said.
“Currently a suitable naval vessel is undergoing modifications to support the operations and to accommodate verification activities by the OPCW,” it added.
The ship operation will destroy what is known as “priority chemical weapons”, the most dangerous of Syria’s total arsenal and ones that have to be out of the country by December 31 under an international deal agreed to avert military strikes on Damascus. OPCW spokesman Michael Luhan yesterday declined to name the navy vessel to be used. A final plan for the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons — on land or at sea — is due to be approved by December 17. The OPCW said that 35 commercial companies have expressed an interest in destroying the lower priority, less dangerous weapons.
Syria is cooperating with the disarmament and has already said it had 1,290 tonnes of chemical weapons and precursors, or ingredients, as well as over 1,000 unfilled chemical munitions, such as shells, rockets or mortars. A team of UN-OPCW inspectors has been on the ground since October checking Syria’s weapons. AFP
