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of Foreign Affairs said the government "would not use chemical weapons
– if there are any – against its own people under any circumstances." The
regime is party to the 1925 Geneva Protocol banning chemical weapons in
war.
The Syrian assurances did not placate the White House.
"We are concerned that in an increasingly beleaguered regime, having
found its escalation of violence through conventional means inadequate,
might be considering the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian
people," said White House press secretary Jay Carney.
An administration official said the trigger for U.S. action of some
kind is the use of chemical weapons, or movement with the intent to use
them, or the intent to provide them to a terrorist group like Hezbollah. The
U.S. is trying to determine whether the recent movement detected in Syria
falls into any of those categories, the official said. The administration
official was speaking on condition of anonymity because this person was
not authorized to speak publicly about the issue.
Israeli officials have repeatedly expressed concerns that Syrian
chemical weapons could slip into the hands of Hezbollah or other anti-
Israel groups, or even be fired toward Israel in an act of desperation by
Syria.
Syria has some 75 sites where weapons are stored, but U.S. officials
aren't sure they have tracked down all the locations, and fear some
stockpiles may have already been moved. Syria is believed to have several
hundred ballistic surface-to-surface missiles capable of carrying chemical
warheads, plus several tons of material stored in either large drums, or in
artillery shells, which become deadly once fired.
"In Syria, they have everything from mustard agent, Sarin nerve gas,
and some variant of the nerve agent VX," according to James Quinlivan, a
Rand Corp. analyst who specializes in the elimination of weapons of mass
destruction.
A primary argument against sending in U.S. ground troops is that
whoever takes possession of the chemical weapons will be responsible for
destroying them, as part of the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention.