US offers to destroy Syrian chemical weapons

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

By TOBY STERLING and ALBERT AJI

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - The U.S. has offered to help destroy some of the most lethal parts of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile at an offshore facility, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical weapons said Saturday.

The international organization's director-general, Ahmet Uzumcu, said in The Hague, Netherlands that the U.S. government will contribute "a destruction technology, full operational support and financing to neutralize" the weapons, most likely on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea. The weapons are to be removed from Syria by Dec. 31.

Separately, the woman appointed as go-between for the United Nations and the OPCW on destroying Syria's chemical weapons stockpile laid out some logistical details. Importantly, the weapons will first be packaged and transported from multiple sites within Syria to the country's largest port, Latakia. Then they will be loaded onto ships owned by other OPCW members before a second hand-off to U.S. vessels.

The weapons and chemicals "will not be (destroyed) in Syrian territorial waters," Sigrid Kaag said at a news conference in Damascus.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131130/DAACU3T02.html

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In this Oct. 9, 2013, file photo, Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, gives an update on the the chemical watchdog's verification and destruction mission in Syria, during a news conference in The Hague. Uzumcu says the United States has offered to help destroy some of the most lethal parts of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, Uzumcu said in a statement Saturday, Nov. 30, 2013, the U.S. government has offered to contribute "a destruction technology, full operational support and financing to neutralize" the weapons offshore, most likely on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea. The operation is to be completed with Syrian assistance by Dec. 31. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

[dipsydoodle]

1. Syrian chemical weapons set to be destroyed at sea.

A plan has been hatched to destroy Syria's chemical weapons at sea using US Navy auxiliary vessel MV Cape Ray.

Industry sources told BBC Newsnight the plan will put a mobile destruction plant aboard that uses water to dilute the chemicals to safer levels.

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The process planned for on board MV Cape Ray - called hydrolysis - will produce an estimated 7.7m litres of effluent. The OPCW says this will be packed in 4,000 containers.

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It is believed that the chemicals, all but 30 tonnes of which take the form of precursors - two or more of which have to be mixed to create the lethal agents - have been gathered in several marshalling areas by the Syrian army and amount to more than 600 tonnes. The other 30 tonnes consist of mustard gas.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25146980

[RC]

2. How much of this stuff will end up on the Black Market, instead of being destroyed?

Cynical much? Naa, I have read me some history and where a profit can be made...