‘90% of world’s chemical weapons destroyed’

28 May 2015, 5:01 pm

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The world’s chemical watchdog says that 90 percent of the global chemical weapons stockpile has been destroyed, calling it a “major milestone.”

The stockpiles include caches containing chemicals needed to make deadly nerve agents like sarin, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says.

“This is a major milestone that shows we are well on the way to ridding the world of chemical weapons,” OPCW director Ahmet Uzumcu says in a statement, issued from the OPCW’s Hague-based headquarters.

Around 65,000 metric tons of declared chemical weapons, mostly from US and Russian arsenals, have now been destroyed OPCW acting spokesman Peter Sawczak tells AFP.

— AFP