2023-07-08 01:26:54
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) affirmed that there are no more declared weapons of this type in the world.
The United States ended this Friday the destruction of all its stockpiles of chemical weaponsa fact that according to the president, Joe Biden, brings the world “one step closer” to rid itself “of the horrors of these types of weapons.”
The last two depots were in Pueblo County, Colorado, where there was about 2,600 tons of mustard gas in about 780,000 rounds, and in eastern Kentucky.
The first destroyed its last weapons in June and the second, called the Blue Grass Army Depot, was completed on Friday.
The latter originally contained 523 tons of sarin, mustard and VX gas in shells and rockets.
“The United States has worked tirelessly for more than 30 years to eliminate its arsenal of chemical weapons. Today I am proud to announce that it has safely destroyed the last ammunition in that arsenal,” Biden said in a statement replicated by the EFE agency.
The president stressed that successive administrations had determined that these weapons should neither be further developed nor deployed.
The complete destruction of the arsenal, he stressed, not only fulfills the commitment acquired with the Convention on Chemical Weapons, which precisely vetoes their development, production, storage, transfer and use, but also makes it “the first time that an international organization verifies the destruction of a whole category of weapons declared of mass destruction”.
“I thank the thousands of Americans who gave their time and talent to this noble and challenging mission,” added Biden, who urged those countries that have not ratified that convention to do so so that the global veto on that weapon “can reach its full potential”.
The Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force in 1997 and, according to its website, gave the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) “the mandate to eradicate forever the scourge of chemical weapons and to verify the destruction , within the established deadlines, of the declared stockpiles of chemical weapons”.
“Russia and Syria should return to complying with the Convention and admit their undeclared programs, which have been used to commit atrocities and brazen attacks. (…) Together with our partners, we will not stop until we can finally and forever free the world of this scourge,” Biden said.
There are no more declared chemical weapons left in the world
The OPCW, for its part, claimed that all declared stockpiles of these toxic agents had been “irreversibly destroyed” after the United States announced that it had disposed of its last stockpiles.
“The end of the destruction of all declared chemical weapons stocks is an important stage,” said Fernando Arias, the head of the organization in charge of monitoring compliance with this convention, in a statement.
This entity based in The Hague (Netherlands) assured that the measure taken by the United States means that “all declared stocks of chemical weapons (were) verified as irreversibly destroyed.”
But the recent use of such weapons means the world must still be on its guard, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization has warned.
In recent years, this watchdog has blamed Syria for resorting to chemical weapons during its civil war and has investigated the use of Soviet-era nerve agents against a former Russian spy in Britain and against Kremlin opponent Alexei Navalny.
“The recent use and threats to use toxic chemical agents as weapons show that preventing a resurgence will continue to be a priority for the organization,” Arias said, reports AFP.
With information from agencies
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