The process of destroying tens of thousands of tons of chemical weapons in the world will be completed within a few weeks, according to information from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). A small remnant of weapons stored in the USA will be destroyed within a few weeks.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Wednesday that the process of destroying tens of thousands of tons of declared chemical weapons around the world would be completed “within weeks”. “More than 70,000 tons of the most dangerous poisons in the world have been destroyed under the supervision of the OPCW,” its director Fernando Arias told reporters during the presentation of a new laboratory and technical center near The Hague.
72,118 tons of stocks
A small remnant of chemical weapons stored in the United States will be destroyed “within weeks”, he added. Since the Chemical Weapons Convention, the treaty that bans the use of toxic weapons implemented in 1997, the OPCW has destroyed 72,118 tons of stockpiles declared by countries around the world. This is equivalent to the equivalent of some 175 jumbo jets, according to the OPCW.
“There are approximately 127 tons of declared weapons remaining at two facilities” located in Colorado and Kentucky, she said. “After 26 years, this is a major achievement for the organization,” said the OPCW, created to enforce the Chemical Weapons Convention. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013.
Syrian regime repeatedly accused of chemical weapons attacks
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime agreed in 2013 to join the OPCW and renounce all chemical weapons, following an alleged sarin nerve gas attack that killed 1,400 people on the outskirts of Damascus. in Ghouta. But the Syrian regime has repeatedly been accused of chemical weapons attacks.