From the Global Security Newswire: A key NATO panel on Sunday approved a draft text that urges Iraq, Russia and the United States to eradicate their chemical warfare materials in a safe and secure manner, the ACTMedia News Agency reported (see GSN, Oct. 4).
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly Science and Technology Committee in Bucharest dismissed an effort by Russia to substitute the call for the three nations to complete chemical demilitarization operations "in due time" with the word "soon."
Russia and the United States have announced they do not expect to meet an extended deadline of April 2012 set by the Chemical Weapons Convention to completely destroy their chemical weapons. Iraq also has a small cache of Saddam Hussein-era chemical weapons that it has yet to begin eliminating. . . .
"We are running late and we need to give an example," said the committee’s vice chairman and author of the resolution, U.S. Representative David Scott (D-Ga.). "We need to act seriously." (photo: Reuters)
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