2014 – The year of destruction of Syrian chemical weapons

#syriaassad #chemicalweapons In the civil war in Syria, thousands of people have died in the violence between the army of President Bashar al-Assad and the Free Syrian Army. Both the warring sides resorted to indiscriminate use of different types of weapons from firearms and missiles to aerial bombing.
At the height of fighting, reports surfaced about use of chemical weapons like mustard gas in certain localities of Syria. Both the sides blamed the other and when things came to a head, US President Barack Obama ruled that if chemical weapons were not surrendered, he would take it as a violation of the red line and would launch an attack on Syria.
Finally, after the involvement of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Syrian administration agreed to hand over the chemical weapons in a phased manner to a central agency.
Finally, President Bashar al-Assad agreed to hand over Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons which were to be destroyed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
The Special Coordinator for the Joint Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations has finally confirmed to the U N Security Council that 96 percent of Syria’s declared stockpile, including the most dangerous chemicals, had been destroyed and preparation were underway to destroy the remaining 12 production facilities.
“This is a chemical weapons disarmament process, it’s been unique,” said Sigrid Kaag after her final briefing to the Security Council in her capacity as the head of the joint mission dealing with Syria’s chemical weapons, which wound up its work at the end of September. The mission had overseen the destruction of 100 percent of “priority chemicals” and 96 percent of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.