The United States of America recently announced the elimination of the remaining stockpile of lethal chemical weapons, which it owned 70 years after the acquisition of these deadly weapons in conjunction with its decision to send a cluster munitions package in support of Ukraine's support against Russia.

In the context, U.S. President Joe Biden announced on Friday that the United States had completely destroyed its stockpile of chemical weapons to fulfil a commitment under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention.

Biden said in a statement: "Today, I am proud to announce that the United States has safely destroyed the final missile in that stockpile. bringing us one step closer to a world free from the terror of chemical weapons ".

Biden also appealed to states that had not yet participated in the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) to accede to it.

Washington had pledged to destroy its chemical weapons before 2007, but had continued to postpone the elimination of chemical weapons and had finally promised to complete the process of destroying its chemical weapons in 2023.

The Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, agreed in 1993 and implemented in 1997, granted the United States until 30 September this year to destroy all chemical warfare weapons and munitions.

Other States participating in the agreement have already destroyed their stockpiles, according to Fernando Arias, chairman of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), last May. Russia completely destroyed its chemical arsenal on September 27, 2017.

According to the American Arms Control Association, the United States held approximately 28,600 tons of chemical weapons in 1990, making it the world's second largest stockpile after Russia.

In a different context, the United States of America decided to send a cluster munitions package to support Ukraine's counter-attack against Russia in a move that raised many concerns and controversy.

Washington's decision raised concerns among several American allied States, especially since cluster munitions were prohibited by more than 100 States, a category of weapons containing a series of explosive small bombs, last used by America in Iraq in 2003.

Al-Hurra TV website quoted an official at the US Department of Defense, the Pentagon: Cluster munitions will arrive in Ukraine within two weeks of today. He noted that Kiev had agreed to the restrictions and conditions for the use of such munitions.

The US official also noted that the shipment of ammunition to be announced will not be the last, as Ukraine will be supplied with other shipments over the coming months. The shipment of cluster munitions is part of a new US $800 million military aid package for Ukraine.

He pointed out that before agreeing to provide Kiev with such ammunition, high-level talks had been held with European leaders to remove their concerns.

The United States military claims that cluster munitions will be useful to Ukraine in repelling Russian troops and will have a positive impact on the conduct of battles, while officials say that the improved version of cluster munitions to be sent to Kyiv was tested in 2020, and the proportion of unexploded ordnance that may leave them has fallen to 2.35 per cent.

Following the US announcement, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed on Friday that all declared stockpiles had been "irreversibly destroyed".

The Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Fernando Arias, considered the "completion of the destruction of all authorized stockpiles of chemical weapons as an important milestone".

The 1997 CWC's other signatories had already destroyed their reserves, Arias announced last May.

Arias said that only the United States must complete the destruction of its reserves. More than "70 thousand tons of the world's most dangerous toxins" had been destroyed under the supervision of his organization.

In this context, observers fear that the United States, which recently announced the destruction of the remainder of its chemical weapons stockpile, has delivered Ukraine within the cluster munition shipment a quantity of such lethal weapons to strike Russia, prolong the war and fuel the conflict.

Source: Yemen News Agency