Report: Syria Transferring Chemical Weapons to Iraq, Lebanon

by Eli Leon, Reuters, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Anti-Assad paper in Lebanon: Syria trying to trick inspectors • Wall Street Journal: U.S.-Russian deal to dismantle chemical weapons focuses attention on Israeli stockpile • Putin: Syrians always viewed their arsenal as an alternative to Israel's nuclear weapons.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a news conference in Geneva, Saturday | Photo credit: Reuters

The Syrian regime has begun transferring its chemical weapons to neighboring countries to deceive U.N. inspectors, the anti-Syrian Lebanese daily al-Mustaqbal claimed on Sunday, a day after Russia and the U.S. announced a new agreement aimed at destroying Syria's chemical weapon arsenal.

According to the paper, some 200 Syrian trucks were loaded with chemical-warfare-related equipment and were then sent to Iraq. The paper reported that the trucks arrived in Iraq on Thursday and Friday and were not inspected by border guards as they entered. 

On Thursday, Free Syrian Army Commander Brig. Gen. Salim Idris said the Russian-American deal was a "blow to the uprising in Syria; [Syrian President Bashar] Assad is fooling the world. The Syrian regime has begun transferring chemical weapons to Lebanon and Iraq. The deal will allow Assad to continue slaughtering innocent people."
Strategic Affairs, Intelligence and International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz told Army Radio on Sunday that Israel has already made clear it would not accept the transfer of Syrian chemical weapons to terrorist organizations, "including [Lebanese-based group] Hezbollah."

The joint U.S.-Russian push to dismantle Syria's chemical weapons has elicited a measured response in Israel. "Like any deal it will be judged on its results. We hope it will succeed," Steinitz told Army Radio. "The deal has advantages and disadvantages," he stressed. "On the one hand, it lacks the necessary speed (in removing chemical arms from Syria). On the other hand, it is much more comprehensive, as it includes a Syrian commitment to dismantle the manufacturing facilities and to never again produce (chemical weapons)."

Yisrael Beytenu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman, who serves as chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, told Army Radio on Sunday that the joint Russian-U.S. deal was good for Israel, but that it still faces the test of implementation. 

Lieberman added that Israel would be able to better assess the situation -- and Assad's earnest -- in one week's time, when the Syrian president in expected to supply the West with the full details about his chemical weapons stockpile. Once the information is made public, he said, Israel's intelligence services will compare it with their information. "We have a pretty good idea of things and after we see the list Assad gives [the U.N.] we will be able to tell if his intentions are serious, or if this was just a ploy," Lieberman said. Israel, he added, "must remain vigilant and attentive and refrain from becoming euphoric or panicking over this."

Asked about the whether Israel would be asked to join Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, to which 163 nations are signatories, Lieberman said, "Only when the Middle East is truly transformed into a new Middle East would we be able to join any treaty." 

Also on Sunday, Jerusalem sources said that should the plan to strip the Assad regime of its chemical weapons come to fruition, it would be a highly significant event in the history of the Middle East, as it would both leave Syria devoid of strategically dangerous weapons and send a clear message to Iran, as the deal to remove Assad's unconventional weapons arsenal was achieved following a tangible military threat.

The sources advised patience, saying that the U.S. still has to prove that it can realize its achievement and that Assad will not be allowed to stall the process.

The agreement on Syria's chemical weapons is starting to have a ripple effect, focusing international attention on Israel's alleged arsenal, The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend. By forcing Syria to admit to its stockpiles of the weapons of mass destruction and taking tentative steps toward their elimination, Washington and Moscow could coax Syria's neighbors into eventually following suit, Western and Arab diplomats told The Wall Street Journal. 

According to the paper, Syria's government has hinted that it could raise Israel's suspected arsenal of nuclear and other unconventional weapons as an international issue, and potentially as a precondition for Damascus moving ahead on the destruction of what the U.S. estimates is at least 1,000 tons of chemical agents.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly stated that Syria's program was only necessary as a defense against Israel's vastly superior firepower.

"It is well known that Syria has a certain arsenal of chemical weapons and the Syrians always viewed that as an alternative [response] to Israel's nuclear weapons," he said Tuesday.

"The main danger of WMD is the Israel nuclear arsenal," Syrian Ambassador to the U.N. Bashar Jaafari told reporters on Thursday.

Jaafari said Israel needed to place its suspected atomic arsenal under international supervision and sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. He said Damascus had not made such actions by Israel a prerequisite for Syria moving ahead and destroying its chemical weapons, but said the world must also focus on the Israeli arsenal.

"Israel has chemical weapons and nobody is speaking about it," he said.

U.S. officials traveling with Secretary of State John Kerry to Geneva this week cautioned that Syria should not try to distract international attention from the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack on rebel-held suburbs east of the capital, which Washington says was carried out by Assad's forces.

"We won't accept attempts by the Syrian regime … to compare itself to Israel, a thriving democracy which doesn't brutally slaughter and gas its own people," said State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki.

The U.S-Russia deal was made possible after the two countries put aside bitter differences over Syria.

After three days of talks in Geneva, Switzerland, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov demanded Assad account for his secret stockpile within a week and let international inspectors eliminate all the weapons by the middle of next year -- an "ambitious" target, Kerry said.

The accord leaves major questions unanswered, including how feasible such a major disarmament can be in the midst of civil war and at what point Washington might yet make good on a continued threat to attack if it thinks Assad is reneging.

Under the Geneva pact, the United States and Russia will back a U.N. enforcement mechanism. But its terms are not yet set. Russia is unlikely to support the military option that President Barack Obama said he was still ready to use. "If diplomacy fails, the United States remains prepared to act," Obama said. "The international community expects the Assad regime to live up to its public commitments."

To that end, the Pentagon said U.S. military forces were still positioned to strike if ordered to do so.

Eli Leon, Reuters, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=11987

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.