(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Wednesday announced that the entire consignment of 600 metric tonnes of chemicals from the Syrian arsenal has been successfully trans-loaded from the Danish cargo ship Ark Futura onto the US vessel Cape Ray
The trans-loading took place without incident at the port of Gioia Tauro in southern Italy with the presence of OPCW inspectors, who continuously monitored the process, it said in a statement at the Hague
OPCW Director-General Ambassador Ahmet Uzumcu expressed his gratitude to Italy for offering the use of Gioia Tauro port
The Cape Ray will now sail into international waters in the Mediterranean and begin neutralising the chemicals at sea. The neutralisation operations should be completed within 60 days
The Ark Futura will continue on to the United Kingdom, where it will offload the rest of Syria's chemicals for destruction in a commercial facility at Ellesmere Port. It will then head to Finland with some chemicals to be destroyed at a commercial facility at Riihimaki
A second cargo ship, the Norwegian vessel Taiko, has already delivered a consignment of chemicals to Finland for destruction at the Riihimaki facility
The ship is now heading to Port Arthur, Texas, USA where the rest of the chemicals will be offloaded and destroyed at a commercial facility there
A team of OPCW inspectors will remain aboard the Cape Ray throughout the neutralisation operations to verify that the chemicals are destroyed in accordance with the stringent provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention, including for safety and security
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