Croatia might take part in Syrian chemical arsenal's destruction by allowing its Adriatic ports to be used to load it onto US ships, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said Tuesday.
Milanovic said that NATO and EU member Croatia has been involved in consultations on a possible transport of "precursors" — ingredients for chemical weapons — from Syria through Mediterranean, state news agency Hina reported.
"Their destruction is envisaged, probably in the Atlantic, (and) organised by the US army, but they have to be loaded onto ships somewhere," Milanovic said.
All Mediterranean states were taking part in "consultations" over the process, Milanovic said, calling for a public debate in Croatia over the issue.
"We have seen what happened in Albania recently, so I am calling for a public debate," Milanovic said.
Albania rejected a US request to host the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, faced with strong protests of thousands of people throughout the Balkans country.
Under a UN Security Council resolution passed in September, Syria's weaponry has to be destroyed by June 30, 2014.
A roadmap to rid Syria of its chemical stockpile, adopted last month by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), says "priority" weapons must be removed from the country by December 31.
The OPCW — which won the Nobel Peace Prize in October — has spent years trying to rid the world of chemical weapons in relative obscurity before being thrust into the global limelight by the Syrian crisis.
