The U.S. agreed to destroy Syria's most lethal chemical weapons on a ship in international waters, an unprecedented operation, after Washington was unable to enlist other countries to undertake the task on their own soil.
The White House said on Sunday that the U.S. would provide an American vessel with the technology capable of destroying the weapons at sea. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW, the group overseeing the dismantling of Syria's chemical-arms program, said the U.S. would "neutralize Syria's priority chemicals."
International leaders still hope the less-lethal weapons, which make up more than half of Syria's arsenal of roughly 1,290 metric tons, will be destroyed on the territory of a willing country. The Hague-based OPCW said it was at an early state of evaluating proposals from 35 private companies to undertake that job, though none from any countries that would have to approve any such operation on their territories.
The sea-based destruction of the high-priority chemical arms—including mustard gas, sarin and VX—reflects how politically unpalatable it was for any national leader to agree to take dangerous weapons into his nation's borders from a war zone.