Iraq ratifies chemical weapons treaty

January 15, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Iraq has given the United Nations its ratification of the treaty banning chemical weapons, a move welcomed by the U.N. chief as a demonstration of the country’s commitment to disarmament and nonproliferation.

Iraq will be bound by the treaty in 30 days, becoming the 186th nation to be a party to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction.

After the first Gulf War in 1991, U.N. weapons inspectors spent years uncovering and destroying Iraq’s extensive chemical weapons program, including nearly 40,000 filled and empty chemical munitions, 690 tons of chemical weapons agents, more than 3,000 tons of precursor chemicals to make weapons, and hundreds of pieces of equipment to produce them.

In the 31‚Ñ2 months before the 2003 Iraq war, when U.N. inspectors were allowed back into Iraq after a nearly four-year ban, they found no evidence that Saddam Hussein had maintained chemical weapons stockpiles or had resumed production.

Iraq’s U.N. Ambassador Hamid al-Bayati, who handed over the ratification document signed by the Iraqi Presidential Council, said it reflected the government’s willingness to cooperate with the international community in the field of disarmament and its determination to participate in maintaining international peace and security.