The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has confirmed today that Syria’s chemical weapons program is officially gone, with the last shipment of chemicals leaving the country today through the port of Latakia.
The final shipment took a couple of months longer than expected, as it was in contested territory where active Syrian rebel fighters made the shipment too dangerous. The trucks finally got safely to Latakia, and the chemicals are on a Danish ship now.
From there, the chemicals will be sent to the USS Cape Ray, where the United States has been running an offshore disincorporation program. Though the US-imposed “deadline” for destruction will likely be missed, since the chemicals are all in American hands they will struggle to blame Syria.
Not that they don’t intend to try. Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that the OPCW’s work in Syria must continue indefinitely, even though Syria doesn’t have any chemical weapons any longer, and that the US continues to want the destruction of the physical buildings where the processing happened, even though the equipment itself was destroyed long ago.
If facts and truth meant anything, this means we'd hear no more fake claims about chem weapons in Syria. We'll see. I wonder if the ISIS rebels got the memo that they now aren't supposed to use chem weapons and try to blame them on the government? I don't know, Sterling Archer isn't always so good about reading his Mom's memos.
In relation to the Israeli attack on Syrian forces recently, I wonder if this is what the Israelis were waiting for – the complete removal of the Syrian chemical weapons. The Israelis wouldn't have to worry overmuch about an chemical attack in response to another Israeli incursion into Syrian territory.