DHAKA: China is to send a military ship to help protect a specially adapted US vessel that will destroy Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal.

China foreign ministry said on Thursday, reports The Jerusalem Post.

Syria is due to hand over deadly toxins which can be used to make sarin, VX gas and other lethal agents under an international agreement forged after an attack on the outskirts of Damascus killed hundreds in August.

The chemicals will be destroyed on board the specially adapted US ship because they are too dangerous to import into any country.

There is no agreement yet on where the ship will anchor while the work is carried out.

‘China has decided to send a military ship to participate in the protection mission for the shipping of Syrian chemical weapons,’ ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing.

BDST: 1712 HRS, DEC 19, 2013
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor