Syria’s chemical arsenal: no longer a secret

Syria’s chemical arsenal: no longer a secret

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Illustration

The world is blind. Inspectors find – months after Israel did – undeclared chemical weapons in Syria.

Many months after Israeli intelligence asserted that Assad fooled the world by falsely promising he got rid of all his stockpiles of chemical weapons, “the world” discovered the truth.

International inspectors have found traces of sarin and VX nerve agent at a military research site in Syria. These findings had not been declared to the global chemical weapons watchdog. This, according to a statement by diplomatic sources last Friday.

Samples taken by experts from the Organization for the Prohibition and Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in December and January tested positive for chemical precursors needed to make the toxic agents.

“This is a pretty strong indication they have been lying about what they did with sarin,” one diplomatic source said. “They have so far been unable to give a satisfactory explanation about this finding.”

In 2013, the United States threatened military intervention against Syria’s government. This followed a sarin gas attacks in August of that year, which killed hundreds of residents in Ghouta, a rebel-controlled suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus.

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Nevertheless, the Damascus government forestalled foreign intervention by agreeing to a U.S.- and Russian-brokered deal under which it joined the OPCW. Syria also admitted to having a chemicals weapons program and promised to eliminate it.

The government of President Bashar Assad last year handed over 1,300 tons of chemical arms to a joint UN-OPCW mission for destruction. Damascus has denied using sarin or any chemical weapons in battle during Syria’s continuing civil war.

Then came recent findings. Diplomatic sources said the sarin and VX nerve samples were taken from the Scientific Studies and Research Center, a government agency where Western intelligence agencies say Syria developed biological and chemical weapons.

It should be noted that in Israel, this hardly came as a surprise. Israeli intelligence claimed from the beginning that Assad fooled the U.S and the U.N and that he still possesses chemical weapons and uses them. “The world wants to be fooled. Maybe now the U.S and the U.N will admit how stupid they were,” an Israeli source said. i-HLS reported about the Syrian deception months ago. “What else should happen for the world to understand” the Israeli source asked.