hollywoodtone.blogspot.com First shipment of chemical weapons leaves Syria
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com First shipment of chemical weapons leaves Syria
Latakia - The UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have announced that chemical weapon materials had been moved from two sites to the port of Latakia. They were then loaded onto a Danish commercial ship.
The first consignment of Syrian chemical weapons materials left Syria on Tuesday January 7th on the Danish ship escorted by both Chinese and Russian warships. Mehmet Uzumcu the OPCW director-general said:
"This is an important step commencing the transportation of these materials as part of the plan to complete their disposal outside the territory of Syria, I encourage the Syrian government to maintain the momentum to remove the remaining priority chemicals, in a safe and timely manner, so that they can be destroyed outside of Syria as quickly as possible.'"Removal was scheduled to take place before the end of last year, but logistical problems of moving the material during the ongoing conflict made meeting the deadline virtually impossible. Bad weather also interfered with movement of the materials. Two of the chemical sites are in the middle of contested areas. The aim is to eliminate all of Syria's chemical weapons by the middle of 2014. The chemicals will travel from the Syrian port of Latakia to Italy, where some of the chemicals will be transferred to a US navy vessel the Cape Ray. The ship has special equipment which will allow the chemicals to be destroyed at sea. Some details about the ship can be found here. The ship is 650 feet long (197.5 meters) with two portable hydrolysis systems that can neutralise chemicals that are part of the Syrian arsenal. The process and who is responsible for what is described in detail in this article. Syrian authorities are responsible for packing and safely transporting the weapons from 12 different sites across the country to Latakia. Russia supplied Syria with large armoured trucks for the transport and the United States also contributed container drums and GPS locators. Russia is providing security for operations at Latakia and the United States has provided, loading and decontamination equipment. Other countries have helped too with China sending ten ambulances and surveillance cameras. Finland sent an emergency response team in case there is an accident. Only the most toxic chemicals will be transferred to the US cargo ship MV Cape Ray. Less toxic chemicals will be shipped via Danish and Norwegian ships to commercial facilities.
hollywoodtone.blogspot.com First shipment of chemical weapons leaves Syria