Germany to Help in Disposal of Syrian Chemical Weapons
By ALISON SMALE
Philipp Guelland/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A training grenade was dismantled during a demonstration at a chemical weapons disposal facility near Münster in October.
The decision was in part to maintain international credibility in addressing Syria’s civil war, the foreign minister says.
The
German Defense Ministry runs a facility near the northern town of
Munster where gases produced in the destruction of mustard gas from
chemical weapons will be neutralized, the government said in a
statement, likening the initial material to industrial waste.
Foreign
Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, tacitly acknowledging that the plan
to destroy the weapons on German soil may prompt criticism from the
opposition Green party and Germany’s strong environmental movement,
stressed that the decision was made in part to maintain international
credibility in addressing Syria’s civil war, particularly as foreign
powers prepare for talks in Geneva this month to try to end the
conflict.
“Nobody who takes international responsibility seriously can say no here,” he said.
Germany
“has secure technology and long experience in destroying the remaining
materials in chemical weapons,” Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen
said in a statement.
The
identification and removal of the weapons by United Nations inspectors
followed a September agreement that averted a threatened military strike
by the United States on Syria in retaliation for a chemical weapons
attack that killed hundreds of civilians in Syria in August.
The
German news agency DPA, citing unidentified sources, said the initial
dismantling of the weapons from Syria — in which mustard gas is split
into more harmless parts — would take place on an American vessel in the
Mediterranean. Hundreds of tons of a chemical DPA identified as
hydrolysate will then be shipped in containers to Germany and taken by
rail or truck to the Munster facility, it said.
Correction: January 9, 2014
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misidentified the German town where the chemical gases will be neutralized. It is Munster, in northern Germany, not Münster, in the northwest.
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misidentified the German town where the chemical gases will be neutralized. It is Munster, in northern Germany, not Münster, in the northwest.
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