Ban Ki-moon voices Syria’s cooperation in shipping chemical materials

New York, (SANA) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the cooperation of the Syrian government in shipping the chemical materials outside the country in the framework of Syria’s joining the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

AFP quoted Ban as saying in a statement that he “welcomes the removal of the remaining 7.2 per cent of chemical weapons material from Syria.”
The Secretary-General also congratulated the OPCW-UN Joint Mission for completing this most challenging of tasks in an active war zone, expressing gratefulness to the Governments of China, Denmark, Norway, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the United States, Cyprus, Lebanon and Italy for providing support to the operations.

“The Secretary-General has welcomed the cooperation of the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic in assisting the Joint Mission to carry out its tasks.”
The Secretary-General noted that “when there is political will – as demonstrated by the successful implementation of the mandated tasks of the Joint Mission – there can be progress towards peace.”

The final stockpile of Syria’s chemical weapons has been shipped out of the country, according to the OPCW, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Moscow welcomes successful completion of removing chemical materials from Syria

The Russian Foreign Ministry also welcomed the successful completion of the international operation to remove chemical materials from Syria as a step prior to destroying them.

“This marks the end of the most important and complex stage of the plan to destroy chemical weapons outside the country, which was worked out by the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and approved by U.N. Security Council Resolution 2118,” the Ministry said.

On the other hand, Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin warned of the possibility that the armed terrorist groups would reach to the chemical weapons still exists.

Churkin pointed out that his country is still worried that some armed groups would possess chemical weapons that they may use in their attacks.

R. Milhem / Ghossoun