Norway says it is considering a request to take the bulk of SyriaÂ’s chemical weapons stockpile for eventual destruction.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ragnhild Imerslund says the U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which are charged with destroying the deadly arsenal, would like the stockpile destroyed in one country outside Syria, and have asked Norway to do that.
Imerslund told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Norway would consider accepting SyriaÂ’s chemical precursors and mixed chemicals such as mustard gas, but not chemicals loaded onto weapons such as warheads, which would be very dangerous to handle.
The ministry says that, according to the latest U.N. estimates, Syria has 50 metric tons of mustard gas and some 300-500 metric tons of chemicals needed to make deadly nerve agents. |