PUEBLO — The United States is moving closer to destroying most of its remaining stockpile of chemical weapons.
Assistant Secretary of Defense Andrew Weber joined officials Thursday at the Pueblo Chemical Depot for a ceremony marking the beginning of the destruction of about 780,000 mustard-agent weapons containing 2,600 tons of mustard gas.
The work would begin next month and is expected to take five years.
Weber says most of the remaining 10 percent of the U.S. stockpile will be destroyed at the depot.
The Pueblo Chieftain reported that Weber spoke about the United States’ work in helping Libya destroy 2 tons of mustard agent in January and removing and destroying all declared chemical weapons in Syria.
The U.S. pledged to destroy all of its chemical weapons under a treaty it ratified in 1997.
