US destroys remaining chemical weapons stockpile

The United States has eliminated the last of its declared chemical weapons stockpile, the government announced on Friday.

"Today, I am proud to announce that the United States has safely destroyed the final munition in that stockpile — bringing us one step closer to a world free from the horrors of chemical weapons," US President Joe Biden said in a statement.

The last remaining rockets filled with the GB nerve agent (sarin) were destroyed by workers at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky last month, as were munitions containing mustard gas at the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado.

"Though the use of these deadly agents will always be a stain on history, today our nation has finally fulfilled our promise to rid our arsenal of this evil," McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said earlier.

Chemical weapons around the world

The US had a deadline of September 30 to eliminate its remaining chemical weapons under the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The move comes 26 years after the treaty was implemented. There were 193 signatories to the 1997 agreement, with abiding countries promising to never use chemical weapons and to destroy all chemical weapons stockpiles.

North Korea, Israel, Egypt and South Sudan are some of the countries which have not signed on to the agreement.

The treaty is monitored by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is based in the Hague.

By destroying the munitions, the US sends a message that chemical weapons are no longer acceptable in the battlefield.

"It shows that countries can really ban a weapon of mass destruction," said Paul F. Walker, vice chairman of the Arms Control Association and coordinator of the Chemical Weapons Convention Coalition.

"If they want to do it, it just takes the political will and it takes a good verification system."

Source: DW