Syria's worst chemical arms neutralized: Pentagon

WASHINGTON: A specially equipped US ship has finished neutralizing all 600 metric tonnes of the most dangerous of Syria's chemical weapons components surrendered to the international community this year to avert threatened air strikes, the Pentagon said on Monday.

It said the Cape Ray, equipped with the US-developed Field Deployable Hydrolysis System, neutralized 581.5 metric tonnes of DF, a sarin precursor chemical, and 19.8 metric tonnes of HD, an ingredient of sulfur mustard, while afloat in the Mediterranean.

All toxic chemicals removed from Syria now at destruction sites (OPCW)

All the toxic chemicals removed from Syria under a deal with the Syrian government to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile have been delivered to destruction facilities outside the country, the global chemical weapons watchdog said on Thursday.
  
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said in a statement that the 1,300 tonnes of chemicals removed from Syria were now being destroyed at various locations. The watchdog said 32 percent of the total had been destroyed by July 21.

Greece unhappy over Syrian chemical weapons destruction

MV Cape Ray

Greece has expressed concerns regarding the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons in the Mediterranean Sea the country’s Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos said Tuesday
Venizelos stated that Greece and its heavily populated island, Crete, have reservations and would “prefer those chemical gases to be destroyed out in the Atlantic Ocean.”

Απάντηση ΥΦΥΠΕΞ Κ. Γεροντόπουλου σε επίκαιρη ερώτηση του βουλευτή κ. Νότη Μαριά (ΑΝ.ΕΛ) για την καταστροφή των χημικών της Συρίας. -Ελληνικό ΥΠΕΞ

MV Cape Ray

ΥΠΕΞ, Παρασκευή, 21 Μάρτιος 2014

Ο Υφυπουργός Εξωτερικών Κυριάκος Γεροντόπουλος, απάντησε σήμερα, Παρασκευή 21 Μαρτίου, στη Βουλή, σε επίκαιρη ερώτηση του βουλευτή του κόμματος των Ανεξάρτητων Ελλήνων, κ. Νότη Μαριά, για την καταστροφή των χημικών της Συρίας.

«Το περιβάλλον είναι η ίδια μας η ζωή. Θέλω να ξεκαθαρίσω ότι όλοι έχουμε οικολογικές ευαισθησίες και μας ενδιαφέρει το περιβάλλον στο οποίο ζούμε. Η προστασία του δεν αποτελεί μονοπώλιο κανενός κόμματος ή κάποιων συγκεκριμένων μόνο πολιτικών. Μας απασχολεί και μας κρατάει σε εγρήγορση όλους.

ΥΠΕΞ: Ανακοίνωση Υπουργείου Εξωτερικών για την καταστροφή των χημικών όπλων της Συρίας

MV Cape Ray

ΥΠΕΞ, Πέμπτη, 13 Μάρτιος 2014

Σε συνέχεια των ενημερώσεων που έχουν γίνει στο πλαίσιο του Οργανισμού για την απαγόρευση των Χημικών Όπλων (OPCW), πραγματοποιήθηκε, χθες, στο Υπουργείο Εξωτερικών, μακρά τεχνική τηλεδιάσκεψη, όπως είχε προαναγγείλει, στις 25 Φεβρουαρίου, ο Αντιπρόεδρος της Κυβέρνησης και Υπουργός Εξωτερικών, Ευάγγελος Βενιζέλος, κατά την κοινή συνεδρίαση της Διαρκούς Επιτροπής Εθνικής Άμυνας και Εξωτερικών Υποθέσεων και της Ειδικής Μόνιμης Επιτροπής Περιβάλλοντος της Βουλής των Ελλήνων.

Massive protests in Italy due to arrival of toxic cargo from Syria

MV Cape Ray

Widespread protests have started in the south of Italy due to the upcoming shipment of a toxic cargo expected to arrive by sea from Syria in 10 days.

Local residents got angry with the situation as, according to them, secrecy surrounds the whole operation and no guarantees were given by the government.

"They are telling us that the material carried is not dangerous, but in fact nobody knows what is inside those containers," said one of the protesters.

First chemical materials removed from Syria by ship

DAMASCUS: A first shipment of material has been removed from Syria under a deal to rid the country of its chemical weapons arsenal, the joint mission overseeing the disarmament said Tuesday.

"A first quantity of priority chemical materials was moved from two sites to the port of Latakia for verification and was then loaded onto a Danish commercial vessel today," the mission said in a statement.

It added that the boat had sailed for international waters.

Danish, Norwegian ships leave Limassol port for Syrian seacoast

BEIRUT, January 03, /ITAR-TASS/. Two Danish and two Norwegian ships have left the Port of Limassol and made the way towards international waters near the Syrian seacoast.

Two dry-cargo ships and two coastguard vessels will be in international waters to enter the Syrian port of Latakia at any moment in order to load containers with chemical weapons, Norwegian Defence Ministry spokesman Lars Magne Hovtun said on Friday.

Vessels for Syrian Chemical Arms Removal Dock in Cyprus

MOSCOW, December 16 (RIA Novosti) – Danish and Swedish ships that will be used to ferry away Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal have docked in Cyprus on their way to the civil war-wracked Mideast nation.
Cypriot ambassador to Russia, George Kasoulides, said Monday that the weapons will be transferred from those ships onto a US vessel and destroyed at sea.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in November finalized a roadmap for destroying Syria’s arsenal more than 1,000 metric tons of weapons-grade chemicals. According to the roadmap, the most dangerous weapons have to be removed from Syria by the end of December and destroyed at sea by April. The rest is slated for destruction by mid-2014.

United States offers to destroy Syria’s Priority Chemicals./Σε πλοίο των ΗΠΑ θα καταστραφουν κάποια χημικά

OPCW receives expressions of interest from 35 private companies to destroy other Syrian chemicals

In a statement to the OPCW Executive Council on Friday 29 November 2013, Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü announced that the United States has offered to contribute a destruction technology, full operational support and financing to neutralise Syria’s priority chemicals, which are to be removed from the country by 31 December.