Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

The US characterises white phosphorus as a conventional munition and a standard part of its arsenal. It does not regard it as a chemical weapon as defined in the chemical weapons convention. Subsequent international comment and analysis has tended to support this view. A spokesman for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which polices the chemical weapons convention, has been quoted in media reports as suggesting that the weapons concerned were not prohibited by the convention.