The first shipment of chemical weapons components has departed Syria under a deal to rid the country of its deadly arsenal.
The UN mission overseeing the disarmament has confirmed a Danish vessel is carrying the material to international waters.
The components will be destroyed after they are eventually loaded onto a US ship and destroyed at sea, by hydrolysis - a process by which chemical bonds are split using water. The destruction was due to take place before 30 June 2014, but the joint misson recently indicated that date will be missed.
“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,” OPCW-UN Special Coordinator Sigrid Kaag said.
Accompanied by naval escorts from Denmark, Norway and Syria, the ship has now sailed for international waters where it will remain “awaiting the arrival of additional priority chemical materials at the port”, Ms. Kaag added.
Maritime security is being provided by naval escorts from China, Denmark, Norway and Russia.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon welcomed the development, calling it an “achievement” in “the continuing progress in the international effort to eliminate the chemical weapons programme”. Ms. Kaag is due to report tomorrow to the UN Security Council in New York.
The Joint Mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for their work in Syria.
