NEW YORK
A hundred percent of Syria's declared chemical weapons material has been destroyed or removed from Syria, the joint international mission overseeing the elimination of Damascus' chemical weapons stockpile announced on Monday.
“The Joint Mission welcomes the removal of the remaining 7.2 per cent of chemical weapons material from the Syrian Arab Republic. With this last movement, the total of declared chemical weapons materials destroyed or removed from Syria has reached 100%," the UN-Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons joint mission said in a written statement.
The statement said, with the elimination of Syria's last acknowledged stockpile of chemical weapons, the most operationally challenging task had come to an end.
“We hope that our contribution will ultimately make a meaningful difference for the Syrian people and the region,” the mission said.
Syria accepted a removal plan in 2013 following an alleged chemical chemical gas attack by the regime, in which nearly 1,500 civilians, including women and children, died in the Ghouta suburbs of the capital Damascus on August 2.
Syria has been gripped in an ongoing civil war since 2011, which has killed over 100,000 people and displaced almost half of the population, according to the U.N.
www.aa.com.tr/en
