US Secretary of State John Kerry today congratulated the world's chemical arms watchdog for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, praising its bravery and resolve in trying to rid Syria of such weapons.
Since more than 1,000 people were killed in August in a sarin gas attack outside Damascus, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has "taken extraordinary steps and worked with unprecedented speed to address this blatant violation of international norms that shocked the conscience of people around the world," Kerry said.
A team of around 30 OPCW arms experts and UN logistics and security personnel are now on the ground in Syria and have started to destroy weapons production facilities, in line with a UN Security Council resolution agreed in late September.
"Today, the Nobel Committee has rightly recognized their bravery and resolve to carry out this vital mission amid an ongoing war in Syria," Kerry said in a statement, vowing the world would never forget the victims of the August attack blamed on the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
"I am also particularly mindful of the more than 100,000 Syrians lost in this bloody conflict, and the need for the entire international community to redouble our effort to bring it to an end and give peace-loving Syrians a country to return to, free of carnage," he added.
The top US diplomat arrived earlier today in Kabul for a surprise visit to discuss efforts to seal a deal for leaving some US troops in Afghanistan after international forces are withdrawn at the end of 2014.
But he did not address in his statement criticism from the Nobel committee that the United States has failed to destroy all its own chemical weapons stock by April 2012, as required by the international Chemical Weapons Convention.
