OPCW: US offers to destroy Syria's priority chemicals

AMSTERDAM - The United States has offered to destroy Syrian chemicals on a US ship, the global chemical weapons watchdog said on Saturday, and is looking for a suitable Mediterranean port where processing can be carried out.The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has been under pressure to find an alternative plan for the destruction of Syria's poison gas arsenal after Albania backed out of hosting the work.The OPCW said 35 firms had expressed an interest in bidding for commercial contracts by Friday's deadline for the treatment of about 800 tons of bulk industrial chemicals that are safe to destroy in commercial incinerators.But another 500 tons of chemicals, including nerve agents, are seen as too dangerous to import into a country or process commercially, and will be treated offshore on the US ship.The OPCW said the operation would be carried out on a US vessel at sea using hydrolysis, adding a naval vessel was undergoing modifications to support the operations.Hydrolysis is a process in which a molecule of water is added to a chemical substance. This addition causes both the chemical substance and water molecule to split into two parts. "The United States has offered to contribute a destruction technology, full operational support and financing to neutralize Syria's priority chemicals," the organization said in a statement. The Hague-based organization, which won the Nobel Peace prize last month, has been given the task of overseeing destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stocks under an agreement which averted US missile strikes.It followed a sarin gas attack on the outskirts of Damascus in August which killed hundreds of people.Sigrid Kaag, head of the joint UN-OPCW Syria team, said on Saturday the mission faced a challenge to get the most lethal chemical agents out of Syria by the end of the year target, in the midst of a civil war which has killed 100,000 people."But we are working to make sure we can meet all the deadlines," she told reporters in Damascus at the end of a week of talks with Syrian officials.She said the chemicals, located at various sites across Syria, would be packed, sealed and transported to the Mediterranean port of Latakia."Then it will be transported to other ships by other member states that will send it to, in principle, a US vessel. It will not be [destroyed] in Syrian territorial waters".The OPCW has been considering destroying Syria's over 1,000 tons of chemical weapons at sea in the event no country agrees to destroy them on its soil.After Albania rejected a request to host the destruction process earlier this month, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington and its allies were exploring two other alternatives to complete the destruction and meet the deadline set by a deal signed with the Syrian government, mediated by Russia, to destroy Damascus's chemical arsenal.A plan adopted by the OPCW in The Hague called for the most critical chemicals to be transported out of Syria by December 31 and destroyed between December 15 and March 15. All other declared chemical materials would be eliminated by June 30.