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Russia on Monday commended the “successful” completion of the international mission to ship out chemical agents in Syria, under a Russia-US brokered deal that helped avert any potential Western air strikes on the middle-eastern country.
In a statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said, “Russia greets the successful end of a large-scale and unprecedented international operation to ship all components of chemical weapons and their precursors out of Syria with deep satisfaction”. It added that around 1,200 tons of chemicals were removed from Syria, praising Damascus for showing “political will” and cooperating with the international community.
Additionally, the Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama discussed the end of the deal in a phone call.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry added that Syria “has been able to carry out a unique operation”, an unparalleled achievement in the 17-year history of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
“In the spirit of strategic partnership Russian and Chinese naval forces in cooperation with Danish and Norwegian military vessels had over the past six months ensured the safety of a sea phase of the operation to take toxic chemical weapons out of the Syrian port of Latakia”, the statement said.
Ahmet Uzumcu, head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said, “Removing the stockpile of precursor and other chemicals has been a fundamental condition in the program to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons”. Sigrid Kaag, leader of the joint UN-OPCW mission, said that the day marked the end of “the most operationally challenging task” in efforts to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal.
Uzumcu added that the OPCW’s work in Syria is not over yet. “While a major chapter in our endeavors closes today, OPCW’s work in Syria will continue. We hope to conclude soon the clarification of certain aspects of the Syrian declaration and commence the destruction of certain structures that were used as chemical-weapons production facilities”, he said.
