Tel Aviv: The rebels in Syria claimed on December 8 that Syrian leader Bashar al–Assad fled to an unknown destination and that they control the country. Israel expected this and in recent days took some defensive steps- reinforcements on the border with Syria and bombing the limited stockpiles of chemical weapons the Assad regime kept after declaring that all of it was destroyed.
As reported by Raksha Anirveda, what every junior intelligence officer in Israel knows has not reached the international organisations that deal with chemical weapons.While the US in 2014 praised the “completion of the mission”. The mission has not been completed and Assad is laughing his head off in his palace.
Now, all of a sudden the world begins to understand that Syria has led it by the nose. Syria agreed to give up its chemical arsenal in 2013 when President Barack Obama threatened missile strikes in retaliation for a chemical attack on a rebel-held suburb of Damascus, believed to have killed more than 1,000 people. Assad’s government had denied involvement in the attack, blaming the rebels.
The weapons, tons of them, were destroyed aboard the US cargo vessel MV Cape Ray in international waters.
The US then declared that 96 percent of Syria’s chemical weapons and related material has been destroyed, including 100 percent of the country’s “priority weapons”.
But doubts shadowed the Assad regimes statements. The main one is whether Assad is hiding undeclared poison gases and there is an investigation into reports of alleged chlorine gas use in some Syrian towns. Chorine is not specifically classified as a chemical weapon.
So here are the solid facts – Syria has not given up even a small portion of its chemical weapons. Assad is a master of deception and he found himself in front of a naive west that believed him.
Syria has one of the most advanced chemical warfare (CW) capabilities in the Middle East. The country’s initial CW capability was provided by Egypt prior to the October 1973 war against Israel. Since then, Syria appears to have acquired an indigenous capability to develop and produce chemical weapons agents, including mustard gas and sarin, and possibly also VX nerve agent.
Chemical weapons agents have allegedly been produced since the 1980s at facilities located near the Hama, Homs, and Al-Safira villages in the Aleppo region. However, Syria remains dependent on foreign sources for some dual-use equipment, and for the precursor chemicals critical to CW agent production.
In recent years, Iran has been identified as a supplier of technical assistance and facilities for developing and producing CW-related precursors. Syria possesses Scud-B and Scud-C ballistic missiles, artillery shells, and rockets that are believed to be capable of delivering chemical warheads.
Israel in expectation to the victory of the rebels, in recent days attacked the sites in which the Assad regime kept what was left from the big stockpile of chemical weapons.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
