These ships are helping to transport the chemical weapons away from Syria

Germany is joining international efforts to destroy Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons, the foreign and defence ministries have announced.

Waste from the destroyed weapons would be burned at a government facility in the town of Muenster, they said.

Germany said it was responding to a request for help from the UN and OPCW, co-ordinators of the destruction plan.

The first consignment of toxic chemicals left Syria on a Danish ship early this week.

It is travelling to Italy, where it will be loaded onto a US Navy ship and shipped to international waters for destruction in a specially created titanium tank on board.

Germany decided, after a request from the UN and the OPCW, it “is prepared to make a substantial contribution to the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons,” the foreign and defence ministries said in a joint statement.

“The government is willing and able to destroy in Germany remnants created in the course of irreversibly neutralising chemical weapons from Syria and which resemble industrial waste.”

The statement said the project would be handled by the state-owned company GEKA in Muenster “in full compliance with environmental regulations”.

Britain has also offered to help get rid of the waste.

Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in a deal brokered by the US and Russia last year.

It followed international outrage when rockets filled with the nerve agent sarin were fired at three towns in the Ghouta agricultural belt around the Syrian capital, Damascus, on 21 August.

Hundreds of people were killed in the attacks.

Western powers said only Syrian government forces could have carried out the assault, but President Bashar al-Assad blamed rebel fighters.

How the plan will unfold

• 1. The Syrian authorities are responsible for packing and safely transporting the chemical weapons from 12 sites across the country to the port of Latakia. Russia has supplied large-capacity and armoured lorries, while the US has sent container drums and GPS locators.
• 2. Russia will provide security for loading operations at Latakia, for which the US has supplied loading, transportation and decontamination equipment. China has sent 10 ambulances and surveillance cameras, and Finland an emergency response team in case of accidents.
• 3. Denmark and Norway are providing cargo ships and military escorts to take the chemicals to an as yet unnamed port in Italy. Russian and China will also provide naval escorts.
• 4. In Italy, the “most critical” chemical agents will be loaded onto the US Maritime Administration cargo ship, MV Cape Ray, to be destroyed by hydrolysis in international waters. Less-toxic chemicals will be shipped by Norwegian and Danish vessels for disposal at commercial facilities.

Syria’s chemical weapons

• Syria believed to possess 1,300 tonnes of chemical agents including sarin and more potent nerve agent VX
• US believes arsenal can be “delivered by aircraft, ballistic missile, and artillery rockets”
• Syria acceded to Chemical Weapons Convention on 14 September; it signed Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention in 1972 but never ratified it

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