The US destroyed its last chemical weapons

“Destroying all declared stockpiles of chemical weapons is an important step,” said OPCW Director General Fernando Arias. Other signatories to the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention have already lifted their reservations, Fernando Arias announced in May.

The United States alone must finish destroying their stockpiles, he said, adding that “more than 70,000 tons of the world’s most dangerous poisons” have been destroyed under his agency’s watch.

Mustard gas, Sarin, VX

The last M55 rocket loaded with the nerve agent sarin was destroyed on Friday at the US Army’s “Blue Cross” depot in Kentucky, the Pentagon said in a separate statement.

For decades, the United States has maintained artillery and rocket munitions containing mustard gas or nerve or nerve agents such as sarin and VX. The use of such weapons was widely condemned after their horrific effects were exposed to the world in the trenches of World War I.

But many countries maintained and further developed their chemical weapons programs in subsequent years. Under the terms of the 1997 convention, the United States had until September 30 to destroy all of its weapons and chemical agents.

‘More Challenges’

Ahead of Joe Biden’s announcement, Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said Friday that the “Blue Cross” warehouse recently disposed of about 500 tons of the deadly chemical agent after four years of operation.

“Although the use of these deadly weapons will be an indelible stain on history, our nation has finally fulfilled its promise to free us from this scourge,” the senator said in a statement, adding that “chemical weapons are responsible for some of the most horrific episodes in terms of human casualties”.

In his statement, President Joe Biden encouraged some countries outside the 1997 convention to sign it so that “the global ban on chemical weapons can achieve its full potential”.

“Russia and Syria must once again comply with the Convention and recognize their undeclared programs used for atrocities and brazen attacks,” the US president began. And for the Director-General of the OPCW, “greater challenges await us”.

Along with Angola, North Korea, Egypt and South Sudan, “four countries have not yet joined the convention,” Fernando Arias said in a press release from the OPCW on Friday. In addition, “used and abandoned chemical weapons still need to be recovered and destroyed,” he added.