Syria declared chemical arms arsenal has been completely destroyed capping more than two years of delicate work

The Syrian government declared chemical arms arsenal has been completely destroyed capping more than two years of delicate work, the global watchdog charged with eliminating the world's toxic weapons said Tuesday.

"One hundred percent has been destroyed," Malik Ellahi, the spokesman for the UN-backed Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), told AFP.

Under the terms of a historic deal hammered out in September 2013 by US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Syria finally admitted to possessing over 1,000 tons of chemical weapons after years of denials and agreed to hand over the whole stockpile for destruction.

The deal averted threatened US air strikes against Damascus after a sarin gas attack on terrorist groups-held areas near the capital that were blamed by the West and regional countries supporting armed groups on the Syrian government in August 2013.

Under the agreement, Syria's entire chemical arsenal had been due to be eliminated by June 30, 2014, and all chemical effluent by December 31, 2014.

A total of 1,300 metric tons of chemical weapons have been removed from Syria, with the majority neutralized on the US Navy ship MV Cape Ray -- and turned into less harmful effluent.