U.S. plans to destroy Syrian chemical weapons at sea

Washington – The United States is planning to destroy some of Syria’s deadliest chemical weapons in international waters aboard a government-owned ship.

The Obama administration said that the plan involves destroying the weapons aboard the MV Cape Ray ship in the Mediterranean Sea, with U.S. Navy warships patrolling nearby, Fox News reports.

The U.S. would use a mobile Field Deployable Hydrolysis System developed by the Pentagon to neutralize the chemical material, which will make it unusable for developing nuclear weapons, the report added.

However, the plan has still not received a final approval.

The final decision would be made by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is facing terror challenges in shipping the deadly weapons out of Syria, the report added.

This approach would avoid aggravating diplomatic, environmental and security problems posed by disposing the materials on any other nation’s soil, a U.S. official said.