MOSCOW, October 11 (RIA Novosti) – An international watchdog overseeing the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons in line with a Russian proposal was awarded the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
The work of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) helped make chemical arms “a taboo under international law,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a press release.
However, it conceded that the watchdog’s work is not yet done – citing, in particular, Russia and the United States, which missed the internationally agreed April 2012 deadline for destroying their own chemical weapon stockpiles.
Russia postponed the destruction of its chemical weapons to 2015, citing underfunding. The United States plans to get rid of its stockpiles by 2023.
Ironically, it was Moscow and Washington who co-led the recent drive to dispose of Syrian chemical weapons, after they were used in the ongoing civil war in the Middle Eastern country.
Syria's promise to destroy its weapons – a solution proposed by Russia and overseen by the OPCW – prompted the US to withdraw the threat of retaliatory airstrikes against the Syrian government, which Washington blames for a gassing that left hundreds dead in August.
The OPCW, headquartered in The Hague, oversees the destruction of chemical weapons by signatories of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.
After Syria’s ascension last month, only six of the UN’s 193 members remain not party to the convention.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize over Russia’s role in brokering a solution to the Syrian chemical weapons crisis – which, in another touch of irony, helped avert a military operation threatened by a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, US President Barack Obama, who won the award in 2009.
