The
destruction of Syria's chemical weapons began on 14 September 2013 after
Syria entered into several international agreements which called for the elimination of Syria's
chemical weapon stockpiles and set a destruction deadline of 30 June 2014. On the same day, Syria acceded to the
Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and agreed to its provisional application pending its entry into force on 14 October. Having acceded to the CWC, the
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Executive Council on 27 September approved a detailed implementation plan that required Syria to assume responsibility for and follow a timeline for the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons (such as
sarin) and Syrian chemical weapon production facilities. Following the signing of the
Framework Agreement on 14 September 2013 and after the OPCW implementation plan, on 27 September the
United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted
Resolution 2118 which bound Syria to the timetable set out in the OPCW implementation plan. The
joint OPCW-UN mission was established to oversee the implementation of the destruction program.
The OPCW began preliminary inspections of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal on 1 October 2013, and actual destruction began on 6 October. Under OPCW supervision, Syrian military personnel began "destroying munitions such as missile warheads and aerial bombs and disabling mobile and static mixing and filling units". The destruction of Syria's declared chemical weapons production, mixing, and filling equipment was successfully completed by the 31 October deadline, but the destruction of chemical weapon stockpiles fell well behind schedule, which had been scheduled for completion by 6 February 2014. Only on 23 June 2014, were the remaining declared chemicals shipped out of Syria for destruction. The destruction of the most dangerous chemicals was performed at sea aboard the
Cape Ray, a vessel of the
United States Maritime Administration's Ready Reserve Force, crewed with U.S. Navy and civilian merchant mariners. The actual destruction operations, performed by a team of
U.S. Army civilians and contractors, destroyed 600 metric tons of chemical agents in 42 days. By 18 August 2014, all of the remaining declared and surrendered chemicals had been destroyed offshore. On 4 January 2016, the OPCW stated that destruction was completed, though since then the use of chemical weapons on numerous occasions allegedly by the Syrian military has been verified.
