The United States confirms that it destroyed its last stockpiles of chemical weapons

First modification: 07/08/2023 – 19:30

One more step towards the end of the use of chemical weapons in the world. The United States confirmed on Friday that it had destroyed the last stockpiles of these toxic weapons at the US Army’s Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado and Kentucky. The last M55 rocket destroyed was carrying sarin, a deadly powerful nerve gas.

“For more than thirty years, the United States has worked tirelessly to eliminate its stockpiles of chemical weapons. Today I am proud to announce that the United States has safely destroyed the last munitions in that stockpile, bringing us one step closer to a free world. of the horrors of chemical weapons,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement on Friday, July 7.

The effects of the use of chemical weapons were exposed during the First World War. However, many countries multiplied their stockpiles of toxic weapons in the years that followed.

“Although the use of these lethal weapons will forever be an indelible stain on history, our nation has finally fulfilled its promise to rid itself of this scourge (…) Chemical weapons are responsible for some of the most horrific episodes in the loss of human lives,” Senator Mitch McConnell said Friday.

For his part, the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, congratulated the US for having managed to destroy its reserves before the official deadline (September 30). He claimed that he did it in a “safe and environmentally sensible” way.

Likewise, the EU promised to continue fighting for the non-proliferation of these weapons and recalled that it approved a new voluntary contribution of 5,300 million euros until 2026 for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Convention of 193 countries

The US had signed the World Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 1993 and was the last country in the agreement with the duty to comply with the destruction of these weapons.

All chemical weapons declared by convention members have been “irreversibly destroyed,” the OPCW declared after Joe Biden’s announcement.

“The completion of the destruction of all declared stockpiles of chemical weapons is an important step,” stressed its OPCW director general, Fernando Ariasit’s a statement.

The Chemical Weapons Convention is an international treaty created with the aim of applying a zero tolerance policy on the use or possession of chemical weapons due to the high damage of such weapons on the population, which entered into force in 1997.

To date, 193 countries have signed it, which means that 98% of the world’s population is covered by its protection. According to the text, “States agreed not to develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, transfer or use chemical weapons under any circumstances and to verifiably destroy their chemical arsenals.”

What about undeclared chemical weapons?

There are still several countries, including North Korea and Egypt, that have not joined the convention.

In addition, other countries, such as Syria and Russia, have signed the convention, but are accused of having undeclared chemical weapons by powers like the United States.

“Russia and Syria must once again abide by the Convention and recognize their undeclared programs, which have been used to commit atrocities and brazen attacks,” the US president said, also calling on the remaining countries to sign the convention so that “the global ban on chemical weapons reaches its full potential.

According to the OPCW director general, “more challenges lie ahead”, including “recovering and destroying used and abandoned chemical weapons”.

With EFE, Reuters and AFP