Syria’s chemical weapons will be destroyed on US ship

The chemical materials will be, first, sent overland to the Syrian northern port of Latakia, where they will be shipped to another unspecified foreign harbor before being transferred to a specially equipped US naval vessel capable of safely destroying them at sea using hydrolysis — a process for chemicals’ decomposition.

Sigrid Kaag, the Special Coordinator of the OPCW-UN Joint Mission, told reporters following a closed-door briefing to the Security Council, late on Wednesday, “We are still awaiting confirmation by a member state that a port is available for trans-loading. That is the planning assumption … At the moment, we’re discussing and we’re hoping to have confirmation soon.” She conceded that “hydrolysis is a fairly relatively new technology, but it is very manageable … In life, one can never exclude anything from happening and going wrong. So I have to be very pragmatic about it.” Kaag conceded that there are security constraints concerning the transportation of the chemicals overland in Syria.