The US has destroyed its last chemical weapons. US President Joe Biden is “proud” and Republicans speak of an “thorn in the side” that will remain. The abolition of the banned weapons took decades.
According to President Joe Biden, the US has destroyed the last of its declared chemical weapons stockpiles. “I am proud to announce today that the United States has safely destroyed the last ammunition in this stockpile. This brings us one step closer to a world free from the horrors of chemical weapons,” Biden said in a written statement from the White House.
The last U.S. chemical weapons stockpiles now destroyed were stored at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot in Pueblo, Colorado, and at the Blue Grass Army Depot (BGAD) in Richmond, Kentucky. According to US information, the last M55 missile containing the nerve agent VX was destroyed at the Kentucky plant last year. However, the US still has a large nuclear arsenal (see chart below).
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had previously announced that the last of the US’s officially known highly toxic warfare agents had been eliminated – a milestone more than 26 years after the entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention.
McConnell: “eyesore” will remain
Chemical weapons are responsible for some of the world’s most horrific human casualties, said McConnell, who spearheaded the eradication of these weapons during his tenure. “While the use of these deadly weapons of warfare will always remain a blot on history, today our country has finally fulfilled its promise to rid our arsenal of this evil.” McConnell is a senator from the US state of Kentucky, where the weapons destruction facility is located.
In 1997, the 193 States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention committed to reporting and destroying all stockpiles of their chemical weapons and not to use chemical weapons. The Control Authority for Chemical Weapons (OPCW), located in The Hague, monitors its enforcement. Since 1997, more than 70,000 tons of the deadliest weapons such as mustard gas and sarin have been destroyed. In the US there were still about 127 tons waiting to be destroyed.
Chemical weapons have recently been used in Syria
Chemical weapons were first widely used in World War I. According to the United Nations, nearly 100,000 people were killed by chemical weapons at the time and more than a million lives have been claimed worldwide since then.
Over the past decade, Syrian government forces have repeatedly used banned weapons in the civil war. If it is suspected that chemical weapons have been used in conflicts, the OPCW sends investigators to the country concerned. The authority also regularly inspects the chemical industry in contracting states. States that have not signed the treaty are North Korea, Israel, Egypt and South Sudan. The OPCW was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013 for its work.
Source: Krone
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