Iraq Joins Chemical Weapons Convention

Iraq has filed paperwork to join the Chemical Weapons Convention, the international treaty that aims to eliminate the use and manufacture of all chemical weapons. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), in The Hague, made the announcement on Jan. 14. Under the treaty, Iraq agrees to inspection and monitoring by OPCW to ensure the nonproliferation of chemical weapons, and it must abide by the treaty's rules on the use of certain precursor chemicals to ensure they are being used for peaceful purposes. Iraq became infamous for its use of chemical weapons against Iran and its own Kurdish citizens in the 1980s, and its chemical weapons stockpiles and facilities were destroyed by United Nations inspection teams after the 1991 Gulf War.