US President Joe Biden announced on Friday the destruction of the last chemical weapons in the US.

This process had begun in 1997, with the signing of the global convention to ban these extremely lethal weapons, with Biden noting that for over 30 years, the US had worked tirelessly to eliminate its stockpile of chemical weapons.

All other states parties to the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention had already destroyed their stockpiles, Fernando Arias, Director General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), announced in May.

Only the US was left to destroy its own stockpile, he had added, explaining that 70,000 tons of the world’s most dangerous poisons had been eliminated under the watch of the institution he leads.

Alongside the US presidency’s announcement, Senate Republican Baron Mitch McConnell announced on Friday that the US military’s Blue Grass chemical weapons depot in Kentucky recently completed the process of destroying about 500 tons of the deadly chemical agent, a four-year mission.

In his own announcement, US President Biden urged all countries that had not already done so to sign the 1997 convention so that the global ban on chemical weapons would reach its full potential.

It was also emphasized that Russia and Syria must return to compliance with the Convention and admit that they have undeclared programs, which were used to commit repulsive atrocities and attacks.

Source: CNN Greece

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