The last back of Syria’s declared chemical weapons stockpile was shipped from its Latakia port Monday for destruction, according to Agence France Presse.
The global chemical watchdog Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) announced at a press conference held at The Hague Monday the last shipment.
"As we speak, the ship (carrying the last chemicals) has just left the port (of Latakia)," said OPCW head Ahmet Uzumcu.
The shipment represented the last eight percent of Syria’s declared stockpile that has been set for destruction as part of the US-Russia brokered agreement from last September.
"Removing the stockpile of precursor and other chemicals has been a fundamental condition in the programme to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons programme," Uzumcu said.
The final shipment previously faced difficulties in terms of shipment out of the country, according to the government in Damascus, due to security concerns related to transporting the weapons from their location to the port of Latakia.
The weapons are now aboard a Danish ship en route to the US shipe Cape Ray for final destruction at sea. Other weapons will also be destroyed at sites in Finland, the U.S. and Britain.
Damascus pledged to cooperate with world powers and the OPCW on removing chemical weapons from its territory after the U.S. threatened to conduct air strike on the country. The strikes were said to be in response to a sarin nerve gas attack in a rebel area of a Damascus suburb that killed 1,400 people in August 2013.
