BRUSSELS, August 14 (RIA Novosti) - The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Thursday that 84.3 percent of chemical weapons, removed from Syria earlier this year, have been destroyed.
According to the organization’s destruction data, that includes 94.8 percent of Category 1 chemicals and 43.1 percent of Category 2 chemicals.
OPCW previously reported about the destruction of 31.8 percent of chemical weapons.
On Wednesday, OPCW said that “all 581 metric tons of a precursor chemical for sarin gas that were removed from the Syrian Arab Republic and trans-loaded onto the US Maritime Vessel Cape Ray in early July, have been destroyed with neutralization technology aboard the ship while sailing in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea.”
A team of OPCW inspectors on the Cape Ray continuously monitored and verified the destruction operations.
After a deadly chemical weapons attack on a Damascus suburb in August 2011, Russia made a proposal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal that was later supported by the United States. Following the deal, Syria agreed to hand over its estimated 1,000-metric-ton arsenal to international control and joined the United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention.
