US fears Syria chemical strike

3 December 2012 Last updated at 15:37 ET

The US says it fears Syria's President Bashar al-Assad may resort to using chemical weapons against his people.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the US was concerned that such an action might be taken by "an increasingly beleaguered regime".

A Syrian official has insisted it would "never, under any circumstances" use such weapons, "if such weapons exist".

Meanwhile, the United Nations says it is pulling "all non-essential international staff" out of Syria.

As many as 25 out of 100 international staff could leave this week, the UN news agency Irin reports.

All humanitarian missions outside Damascus will be halted for the time being.

"The situation is significantly changing," Sabir Mughal, the UN's chief security adviser in Syria, said. "There is an increased risk for humanitarians as a result of indiscriminate shooting or clashes between the parties".

The European Union, which has a diplomatic office in the Syrian capital, has confirmed it too is "to reduce activities in Damascus to a minimum level due to the current security conditions".

Earlier, Egypt Air ordered the return of a flight on its way to Damascus amid reports of a "bad security situation" around the airport - only a day after ending its suspension of flights following violence around the airport and in the capital's suburbs last week.

Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi is reported to have already left the country, even before reports that he had been dismissed, ostensibly for making statements out of line with government policy.

Rebels have been making gains on the ground, and the head of the Arab League has said the Syrian government could fall at any moment, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from Beirut.

But it still holds the capital, parts of the second city Aleppo, and other centres and one diplomat said it still has a lot of fight left in it.

'Reprehensible'

The BBC's Paul Adams in Washington says it is not the first time US officials have voiced concern over chemical weapons in Syria, but as the situation deteriorates, so those concerns mount.

No-one has said what the latest indications are but one unnamed US official spoke to the New York Times of "potential chemical weapon preparation".

Mr Carney told reporters that such was the concern about the possibility of Syria using such weapons, Washington was preparing contingency plans.

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Syria's chemical weapons

• The CIA believes Syria has had a chemical weapons programme "for years and already has a stockpile of CW agents which can be delivered by aircraft, ballistic missile, and artillery rockets"
• Syria is believed to possess mustard gas and sarin, a highly toxic nerve agent
• The CIA also believes that Syria has attempted to develop more toxic and more persistent nerve agents, such as VX gas
• A report citing Turkish, Arab and Western intelligence agencies put Syria's stockpile at approximately 1,000 tonnes of chemical weapons, stored in 50 towns and cities
• Syria has not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) or ratified the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC)

Sources: CSIS, RUSI

He did not give details of what those plans would be, but he echoed a similar warning made earlier by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

She had said the use of chemical weapons was a "red line for the United States", adding that "we're certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur.

"Once again we issue a very strong warning to the Assad regime that their behaviour is reprehensible. Their actions against their own people have been tragic," she told a news conference in Prague.

But Damascus rejected the allegations. A foreign ministry spokesman was quoted by state television as saying: "Syria confirms repeatedly it will never, under any circumstances, use chemical weapons against its own people, if such weapons exist."

Syria is believed to hold chemical weapons - including mustard gas and sarin, a highly toxic nerve agent - at dozens of sites around the country.

The CIA has said those weapons "can be delivered by aircraft, ballistic missile, and artillery rockets".

'Not inveterate defenders'

Intelligence that the Syrian government was contemplating the use of the missiles is what led neighbouring Turkey to request Nato Patriot missile defences along its borders, the Guardian newspaper quoted Turkish officials as saying on Sunday.

Several Syrian mortar shells - aimed at rebel targets close to the border - have landed in Turkish territory in recent weeks, leading Ankara to ask Nato for the deployment of the sophisticated anti-missile batteries.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin, after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Monday, warned against such a move, fearing it would "exacerbate" rather than "defuse" tensions on the border.

Talks between the two men were primarily meant to centre on boosting trade ties, but made the headlines because of their discussions on Syria.

Moscow has remained a key ally of Syria during the 22-month conflict, while Ankara now backs the rebels trying to oust President Assad.

There was no breakthrough, but Mr Putin said that although they "cannot find a mutual approach on the methods of how to regulate the situation in Syria... our assessment of the situation completely coincides."

And he stated: ""We are not inveterate defenders of the current regime in Syria. I've already said it many times. We are not advocates of the incumbent Syrian leadership. Other things worry us, like what will happen in the future?"

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20583966#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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