The MV Cape Ray, the U.S. ship tasked with destroying Syria’s chemical weapons, reached Spain on Thursday, where it will wait for Syria to finish dismantling its stockpiles.
{mosads}But Syria has been missing deadlines for removing its chemical weapons. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Wednesday that Syria had shipped only 11 percent of its chemical weapons out of the country — missing its Feb. 5 deadline to get all of its chemical weapons out of Syria.
A Pentagon spokesman said the Cape Ray will remain at the port in Rota, Spain, until Syria has completed removing its chemical weapons.
Once that happens, the cargo ship will move to the Italian port Gioia Tauro to take the chemicals on board for destruction.
The ship will then sail out to the Mediterranean Sea, where the destruction will take place. The mission is expected take as many as nine months as two hydrolysis units on the ship neutralize hundreds of tons of chemical weapons at sea.