U.S warns Syria against the use of chemical weapons and threatens consequences

The warning, a first admission by the Syrian regime that it has weapons of mass destruction, came as regime troops reclaimed to control most of Damascus after a week of heavy clashes.

Fighting was still raging in the country’s second city of Aleppo where rebels claimed to have captured several districts, and activists said at least 52 people, including 24 civilians, were killed in violence across Syria. At a
Damascus news conference Monday, foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said Syria has chemical weapons and will use them if attacked by outsiders, though not against its own civilians.

Makdissi’s remarks came amid growing international concern that Damascus is preparing to deploy its chemical arsenal in the repression of a 16-month uprising against the Assad regime.

“Syria will not use any chemical or other unconventional weapons against its civilians, and will only use them in case of external aggression,” Makdissi told reporters.

“Any stocks of chemical weapons that may exist, will never, ever be used against the Syrian people,” he said, adding that in the event of foreign attack, “the generals will be deciding when and how we use them.” President Obama
responded swiftly, warning Assad not to make the “tragic mistake” of deciding to unleash his stockpile of chemical weapons.

“Given the regime’s stockpile of chemical weapons, we will continue to make it clear to Assad and those around him that the world is watching,” Obama told an audience of US veterans in the western US state of Nevada.

“They will be held accountable by the international community and the United States should they make the tragic mistake of using those weapons,” he added. Israel has also stepped up the rhetoric against Syria, warning it could
take military action if any of its advanced weapons end up in the hands of Hezbollah.

Makdissi stressed later in an email that Syria would “never use chemical and biological weapons during the crisis… and that such weapons, if they exist, it is natural for them to be stored and secured.” A leading Syrian opposition
leader warned however that the Assad regime was indeed capable of using chemical weapons.

“A regime that massacres children, that rapes women, can just as well use chemical weapons,” Abdel Basset Sayda told the Anatolia news agency. UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the use of chemical arms would be “reprehensible”and stressed
“all the countries have an obligation not to use any weapons of mass destruction, whether they are parties or not to any convention or agreement.”

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Posted by Hamza Jahangir on Jul 24 2012. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry