Tel Aviv: The war in Ukraine has brought the military involvement of Russia in Syria to the lower level since the outbreak of the civil war in the country. According to Israeli sources, this may push the Assad regime to use “unconventional” means.
Since it invaded Ukraine in February, Russian airstrikes in Syria have declined, killing fewer people, according to a UK-based activist group. Over the course of the past year, Russian bombings in Syria have claimed the lives of 241 civilians. Seven years to the day when Russia started its operations in Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the majority of these were combatants for the Islamic State (IS), but the total also included 28 civilians.
Since Russia began conducting airstrikes in Syria on September 30, 2015, in support of President Bashar al-Assad’s administration this represents the lowest annual death toll. The Observatory, which depends on a source, claimed that “Russia’s participation has typically decreased in Syria since the start of the war on Ukraine.” The Israeli sources added that if Assad finds himself with “his back to the wall” he may use different types of chemicals that are used as weapons.
The Israeli intelligence organizations believe that Syria has kept a stockpile of chemical weapons. This after claiming that it destroyed all sorts of poisonous gases. Israeli sources say that the US is aware of this Syrian violation of UN resolution but has decided not to act.
According to the Begin – Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies in Israel, there have been concerns among international observers that Syria has restarted its chemical program. “The regime led by Syrian President Bashar Assad has repeatedly used chemical weapons against its own Sunni citizens to conduct mass slaughter throughout the civil war,” the report says.
The US has been briefed by Israel about the chemical weapons in Syria. The state department chose not the blame Syria for keeping a stockpile of these chemical weapons but instead released a statement accusing the Damascus government of carrying out a chemical attack in a former rebel-held area in 2013. Syria’s Foreign Ministry slammed the US State Department’s accusation.
“The government of the Syrian Arab Republic reaffirms once again that it stands against the use of that kind of weapons in any place, at any time and under any circumstance and by any side as it is an issue that opposes Syria’s principles and moral,” said the Ministry.
The attack, during the Syrian civil war, took place in the early hours of August 21, 2013, when opposition-controlled areas in Ghouta were struck by rockets containing the chemical agent Sarin. According to a report prepared by the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), Bashar al-Assad’s regime has used chemical weapons, mainly chlorine, dozens of times since the American missile strike on the al-Shayrat airbase in Syria in April 2017. However, the chemical weapons attack on civilians in Duma (apparently chlorine mixed with nerve gas) by the regime on April 7, 2018 was the attack that drove US President Donald Trump to launch a military operation on April 14, in conjunction with Britain. Israeli intelligence time after time says that Syria keeps a stockpile of different 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
