With the transfer of the chemical material from the Danish ship, the Ark Futura, to the US Cape Ray, Italy has made a decisive contribution to the disarmament of Syria. This was Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini’s comment on the operations under way since the morning of 2 July 2014 at the port of Gioia Tauro, in Calabria.
“Italy has made it possible to carry out a key step in the process of destroying Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal. And it has done so in conditions of the utmost safety and with due respect for the strictest regulations governing the protection of the environment”, declared Minister Mogherini. The Minister was speaking from Strasbourg, where she was attending Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s presentation of the Italian EU Presidency to the European Parliament.
“It is important that the operation was conducted under the direct control of the government, the parliament, and local authorities, in a framework of total transparency and with the full involvement of the state. I also wish to thank the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the governments of the United States and Canada. Close collaboration by all concerned has enabled us to achieve what to date is the only positive signal to emerge from the Syrian crisis”, concluded Minister Mogherini.
