UK destroyed Syrian chemical weapon at Ellesmere Port

United Kingdom’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office on 7 August 2014 announced that it has destroyed entire chemical stockpile of 190 metric tonnes of Syrian Arab Republic that was transported to the country. The destruction of the stockpile comprised was carried out at a commercial facility in Ellesmere Port.

Apart from this, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) based in The Hague confirmed that 74.2 percent of the Syria’s entire stockpile has been destroyed.

The chemical consignment transported to UK reached at Southampton on 15 July 2014 before transportation to Cheshire for incineration. The consignment was sent to United Kingdom after the country agreed to take the responsibility to dismantle Syrian weapons as part of the international mission to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons programme.

The destroyed chemicals of the consignment mainly included B precursors. It also destroyed small quantity of hydrochloric acid, which was about 15 percent of the stockpile.

The destruction took place under verification by OPCW inspectors at a commercial facility operated by Veolia at Ellesmere Port. The fund for destruction was provided by the UK Government.

The remaining stockpile destruction operations will be carried out at land-based commercial facilities in Finland and the United States and on onboard the US Maritime Vessel Cape Ray in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea. While, the effluent from hydrolysis operations on the Cape Ray will afterwards be destroyed in Finland and at a facility in Germany.