New global push sought to scrap chemical weapons

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Nations including Syria, Iraq and Israel should join a landmark pact for destroying stockpiles of chemical weapons as they serve hardly any security or strategic purpose, a watchdog agency said on Friday.

Rogelio Pfirter, director-general at the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), made the appeal ahead of a review conference next week.

So far 183 countries have ratified the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention banning the use, development, production, stockpiling and transfer of chemical weapons but the OPCW wants more states to join up.

"Chemical weapons basically terrorize civilians, they are of relatively little security or strategic use these days," Pfirter told Reuters in an interview.

"It is hard to see how these weapons can make any contribution to peace," he said.

Israel, Myanmar, Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Guinea-Bissau have signed up to the treaty but have not ratified it, the watchdog said. Iraq, Syria, Egypt, North Korea, Somalia, Lebanon and Angola have shunned it.

Regional conflict and internal problems are among the major obstacles to these countries becoming members to the convention, said Pfirter.

"We hope these countries, irrespective of the fact they have a crisis there, will realize they should join," he said.

He said officials from some of those countries will attend next week's review conference.