Editing Chemical Weapons Convention (section)

====Iraqi stockpile====
{{See also|Iraqi chemical weapons program}}

The U.N. Security Council ordered the dismantling of Iraq's chemical weapon stockpile in 1991. By 1998, [[UNSCOM]] inspectors had accounted for the destruction of 88,000 filled and unfilled chemical munitions, over 690 metric tons of weaponized and bulk chemical agents, approximately 4,000 tonnes of precursor chemicals, and 980 pieces of key production equipment.<ref name=iraqprofile>{{cite web |url=http://www.nti.org/country-profiles/iraq/chemical/ |title=Iraq Country Profile – Chemical |work=Nuclear Threat Initiative |date=April 2015 |access-date=16 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150207121236/http://www.nti.org/country-profiles/iraq/chemical/ |archive-date=7 February 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The UNSCOM inspectors left in 1998.

In 2009, before Iraq joined the CWC, the OPCW reported that the United States military had destroyed almost 5,000 old chemical weapons in open-air detonations since 2004.<ref name=openair>{{cite news |first=C.J. |last=Chivers |title=Thousands of Iraq Chemical Weapons Destroyed in Open Air, Watchdog Says |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/world/middleeast/thousands-of-iraq-chemical-weapons-destroyed-in-open-air-watchdog-says-.html |date=22 November 2014 |work=The New York Times|access-date=16 May 2015}}</ref> These weapons, produced before the 1991 [[Gulf War]], contained [[sarin]] and [[sulfur mustard|mustard agents]] but were so badly corroded that they could not have been used as originally intended.<ref>{{cite news |title=New Intel Report Reignites Iraq Arms Fight |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/22/AR2006062201475.html |first=Katherine |last=Shrader |date=22 June 2006 |newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=16 May 2015 |agency=Associated Press}}</ref>

When Iraq joined the CWC in 2009, it declared "two bunkers with filled and unfilled chemical weapons munitions, some precursors, as well as five former chemical weapons production facilities" according to OPCW Director General Rogelio Pfirter.<ref name="India" /> The bunker entrances were sealed with 1.5 meters of reinforced concrete in 1994 under UNSCOM supervision.<ref name=difficulties /> As of 2012, the plan to destroy the chemical weapons was still being developed, in the face of significant difficulties.<ref name=iraqplan>{{cite web |url=http://www.opcw.org/fileadmin/OPCW/EC/68/en/ns/ec68nat09_e_.pdf |title=Progress report on the preparation of the destruction plan for the al Muthanna bunkers |work=OPCW |date=1 May 2012 |access-date=16 May 2015}}</ref><ref name=difficulties>{{cite web |url=http://cns.miis.edu/stories/100304_iraq_cw_legacy.htm |title=Iraq Faces Major Challenges in Destroying Its Legacy Chemical Weapons |first=Jonathan B. |last=Tucker |publisher=James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies |date=17 March 2010 |access-date=16 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100329221555/http://cns.miis.edu/stories/100304_iraq_cw_legacy.htm |archive-date=29 March 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2014, [[ISIS]] took control of the site.<ref name=isis>{{cite news |title=Isis seizes former chemical weapons plant in Iraq |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/09/isis-seizes-chemical-weapons-plant-muthanna-iraq |work=The Guardian|date=9 July 2014 |access-date=16 May 2015 |agency=Associated Press}}</ref>

On 13 March 2018, the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, congratulated the Government of Iraq on the completion of the destruction of the country's chemical weapons remnants.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>