Chemical Weapons (CW) proliferation and terrorism pose a grave threat to international peace and security. They undermine the rule of law, respect for human rights, protection of civilians, tolerance among people and nations and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

Misuse of toxic chemicals and chemical terrorism poses a grave threat to international peace and security, especially in the Middle East, where it was recently confirmed use of industrial chemicals as chemical weapons in Syria and as means of terror in other countries, including Iraq. It poses a fundamental challenge to the international community and security and the development of the region.

Experience has shown that no country or industry is immune to terrorism, and that no country or industry can effectively deal with proliferation or terrorism alone. Therefore, cooperation between all the related stakeholders including the governments, the industries, scientific institutions, and international partners with an increased role played by the industries providing protective solutions and know-how, are important element to the efforts to address this global threat.

Jordan, being under continued chemical threat, has developed relevant experience in mitigating these threats of chemical weapons. Jordan has introduced effective international cooperation in these regards.

Although Jordan develops CBRN management security activities within the frameworks of national, bilateral and international projects, those efforts may occur not comprehensive due to a multi-faceted and multi stakeholder nature of chemical security threats.

The proposed project offers an active approach to identify chemical security gaps or areas of improvement in the Middle East and North African Region. The project will develop a set of confidence chemical security building measures in Jordan to be promoted in the region among all the stakeholders to ensure that toxic chemicals are used only for peaceful purposes.

In order to move forward with the project, ICCSS and international stakeholders have assisted the Jordan stakeholders to identify and carry out a gap analysis as well as identify the priority areas that need to be addressed. The aim was to give through the gap analysis an overview of the state of the chemical sector, identify the most pressing problems and give recommendations for future implementation as well as build a possible future roadmap in a form of chemical safety and security confidence building measures for the Middle East.

The leading activities within the project included 2 chemical security seminars in Warsaw, Poland, on 19-23 September, 2018, and in Amman, Jordan on 09-11.04.2019. Both Seminars were accompanied by series of trainings.

The project has been conducted as a public-private initiative, with a broad international support and with the following core international stakeholders: International Centre for Chemical Safety and Security (ICCSS) in Warsaw, Poland, as the initiator and the international coordinator of the project, Jordan Armed Forces (JAF) as leading partner in Jordan.

The project outcomes are planned to be implemented in the Middle East and North African Region. The Jordan Chemical Security Project is a unique initiative to provide continuity to the international efforts to reduce the threat from chemical weapons /CW/ and mitigating proliferation risk of CW materials and expertise.

The project is an element of the global process on chemical safety and security – CHEMSS (www.chemss2017.org), led by the ICCSS as a global gathering of leaders and practitioners on chemical and environmental safety and security.

The core principle of the project development and implementation chemical safety and security in Jordan is to concentrate on the national and regional prevention and preparedness against chemical threats. The leading approach is to implement the whole-society approach which enable to engage all the relevant Jordan stakeholders in the process of enhancing chemical security in Jordan. The project implementation will ensure sustainability and continuity of efforts to enhance and develop chemical security by the national stakeholders.

More information about Jordan project: www.cbm.iccss.eu