GIOIA TAURO, Italy
The transfer of hundreds of tons of Syria's chemical weapons from a Danish ship to a U.S. ship for destruction at sea was completed on Wednesday at an Italian port.
Italian port workers, involved in the loading were congratulated by Italian Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti who said on Twitter; "Italy's big test. We are proud. We respectfully contributed to world security and environment".
The U.S. cargo ship, the Cape Ray will now sail into international waters in the Mediterranean and neutralizing of the arsenal will begin at sea with two Field Deployable Hydrolysis Systems (FDHS). This process is estimated to be completed within two months, according to Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which together with the UN has been overseeing their destruction.
It was little over a year ago that Obama announced that the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime against civilians in Syria amounted to the crossing of a "red line" and the process to destroy them was begun.
The use of chemical weapons in Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus resulted in the deaths of nearly 1,500 civilians, including women and children on 2 August last year.
www.aa.com.tr/en
