Staff Writer
On Friday, President Joe Biden declared that the country’s long-standing chemical weapons stocks had been completely destroyed. This significant announcement marked the end of the known global supply of these weapons of mass destruction.
“Today, I am proud to announce that the United States has safely destroyed the final munition in that stockpile — bringing us one step closer to a world free from the horrors of chemical weapons,” stated Biden.
Though several nations are thought to have hidden stockpiles of chemical weapons, the United States was the final signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention to finish the work of destroying its “declared” stockpiles when it went into effect in 1997.
More than a century after the uncontrolled use of chemical weapons during World War I resulted in widespread soldier casualties and maiming, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons hailed the milestone as a “historic success” of disarmament.
The US statement meant that all of the chemical weapons stockpiles throughout the world had been “verified as irreversibly destroyed,” according to the OPCW.
OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias remarked, “I congratulate all States Parties, including the United States of America in this occasion, on this tremendous achievement for the international community.
The elimination of “an entire category of declared weapons of mass destruction” has, according to Biden, never been independently verified.
sarin, deadly mustard gas, and VX
The declaration was made shortly after the last batch of deadly chemical agents kept by the US military, 500 tonnes, were destroyed at the Blue Grass Army Depot, a US Army site in Kentucky, after a four-year effort.
The US had long-standing stocks of rockets and artillery projectiles loaded with mustard gases, nerve agents including VX and sarin, and blister agents.
After being used in World War I with terrible outcomes, these weapons received widespread condemnation.
They were not heavily utilized during World War II, but many nations kept them and developed them in the years that followed.
Iraq’s deployment of nerve gas against Iran during their 1980s war was the most notable application since the 1970s.
More recently, the OPCW and other organizations claim that Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria used chemical weapons against opponents during the country’s civil conflict.
Extremely hazardous work
The United States has until September 30 of this year to destroy all of its chemical agents and munitions under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which was signed in 1993 and went into effect in 1997.
According to the OPCW, other deal members have already destroyed their holdings, totaling about 72,000 tonnes since the agreement went into effect.
The United States, after Russia, had the second-largest stockpile of chemical weapons in the world in 1990, according to the US Arms Control Association.
The Chemical Weapons Convention was negotiated by the superpowers and other nations as the Cold War came to an end.
The stocks had to be eliminated, which was a risky task because it required neutralizing both the chemical agents and the weapons they were hidden in.
In 2017, Russia finished eliminating all of its disclosed stockpiles.
The US had less than 600 tonnes left to destroy by April 2022.
In addition, Biden urged the four nations of Egypt, Israel, North Korea, and South Sudan to sign or ratify the pact in order to ensure that all chemical weapons in the world are destroyed.
At this time, Myanmar, Iran, Russia, and Syria, four signatory nations, are thought to be out of compliance due to suspicions of holding undeclared stockpiles.
Biden stated that “Russia and Syria should resume compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention and admit their undeclared programs, which have been used to commit egregious atrocities and attacks.”
