The United States destroys the last of its declared chemical weapons
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell announced on Friday that the United States had destroyed its last declared stockpile of chemical weapons.
McConnell said in a statement that workers at the “Blue Grass” army depot in Kentucky got rid of the last thousands of missiles loaded with nerve agent “GB”, which are the last chemical weapons that the United States announced its possession, in completion of a decades-long campaign to eliminate the stockpile of these missiles. , which by the end of the Cold War amounted to more than 30 thousand tons.
The United States had until September 30 to get rid of its remaining chemical weapons under the International Chemical Weapons Convention, which entered into force in 1997 and has been joined by 193 countries.
The munitions destroyed in Kentucky are the last of the 51,000 M55 rockets loaded with the nerve agent GP (a deadly poison also known as Sarin) that have been stored in the warehouse since the 1940s.
Military experts say that by destroying its stockpiles of chemical weapons, the United States formally confirms that these types of weapons are no longer acceptable on the battlefield, and sends a message to the handful of countries that have not joined the treaty.
Chemical weapons were first used in World War I and are estimated to have killed at least 100,000 people.
Although their later use was prohibited under the Geneva Convention, states continued to stockpile weapons until the signing of the treaty that called for their destruction.
(Associated Press)
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2023-07-07 21:07:37
