The United States destroyed its last declared chemical weapons

US President Joe Biden has announced that the US has destroyed the last of its chemical weapons, completing a process that began in 1997 when it signed a global convention banning these deadly weapons.

“For more than 30 years, the United States has worked tirelessly to eliminate its chemical weapons,” Biden said in a statement. We are one step closer to a world without the terrors of the world.” Chemical weapons”.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell confirmed Friday that the United States had destroyed its last reported chemical weapons stockpile.

McConnell said in a statement that workers at the Army’s Blue Cross depot in Kentucky had removed thousands of rockets that had reached the end of the year. Cold War more than 30 thousand tons

Under the International Chemical Weapons Convention, which came into effect in 1997 and has 193 nations acceding to it, the United States has until September 30 to dispose of its remaining chemical weapons.

The munitions destroyed in Kentucky were 51,000 M55 rockets stored in a warehouse since the 1940s loaded with the nerve agent GP – a deadly poison also known as sarin.

Military experts say that by destroying chemical weapons, the United States is formally confirming that it can no longer accept these types of weapons on the battlefield, sending a message to some countries that have not joined the treaty.

Chemical weapons were first used in World War I and are estimated to have killed at least 100,000 people.

Although their use was prohibited under the Geneva Conventions, states stockpiled the weapons until they signed an agreement calling for their destruction.