The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons announced the destruction of the last remaining stocks of chemical weapons under U.S. control on Friday, July 7. This represents the last state to officially possess such weapons, while others, such as Russia and Syria, are accused of secretly pursuing their programs.
President Joe Biden announced Friday that the United States has fully destroyed its decades-old stockpiles of chemical weapons, a milestone hailed as completing the elimination around the world of all known stores of the agents of mass death.
The United States was the last of the signatories of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which came into effect in 1997, to complete the task of destroying their “declared” stockpiles, though some states are believed to maintain secret reserves of chemical weapons.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons called the milestone a “historic success” of disarmament, more than one century after the uncontrolled use of chemical gases during World War I produced mass deaths and maiming of troops.
The US announcement meant that all the world’s declared chemical weapons stockpiles were “verified as irreversibly destroyed,” the OPCW said.
The US had held for decades stores of artillery projectiles and rockets that contained mustard gases, VX and sarin nerve agents, and blister agents.
Such weapons were condemned widely after their use with horrendous results in World War I.
They were not used significantly in World War II, but many countries retained and further developed them in the years afterward.
The most prominent use since the 1970s was Iraq’s nerve gas attacks on Iran during their war in the 1980s.
More recently, the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on opponents during the country’s civil war, according to the OPCW and other bodies.
The Chemical Weapons Convention, agreed in 1993 and coming into effect in 1997, gave the United States until September 30 this year to destroy all of its chemical agents and munitions.
Eliminating the stockpiles, doubly dangerous because it means neutralizing not only the chemical agents but also the munitions they are contained in, was a slow process.
Biden called for continued vigilance to ensure all chemical weapons around the world are destroyed and for the four countries that haven’t signed or ratified the treaty — Egypt, Israel, North Korea and South Sudan — to do so.
Currently four signatory countries are considered not in compliance on suspicion of having undeclared stockpiles: Myanmar, Iran, Russia and Syria.
“Russia and Syria should return to compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention and admit their undeclared programs, which have been used to commit brazen atrocities and attacks,” Biden said.
Malo Pinatel, with AFP
