Chemical weapons? Syria 'backpedaling furiously' over weapons threats

One day after threatening to unleash chemical weapons if it were invaded, Syria denies having unconventional weapons, and says West is preparing an Iraq-style intervention.

By Arthur Bright,?Correspondent / July 24, 2012

In this image made from amateur video released by the Ugarit News and accessed Monday, July 23, a Free Syrian Army soldier looks at a Syrian military vehicle that caught on fire during clashes with Syrian government troops in Aleppo, Syria. One day after threatening to unleash chemical weapons if it were invaded, Syria denies having unconventional weapons.

Ugarit News via AP video/AP

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Syrian rebels have accused the Assad regime of moving its chemical weapons to the borders, even as the Syrian government has been "backpedalling furiously" from its warning yesterday that it would use its chemical arsenal against foreign intervention in the civil war gripping the nation.

Agence France-Presse reports that the Free Syrian Army warned in a statement today that President Bashar al-Assad's government has been moving its chemical weapons to new locations along the Syrian border.?

"We in the joint command of the Free Syrian Army inside the country know very well the locations and positions of these weapons," the statement said. "We also reveal that Assad has transferred some of these weapons and equipment for mixing chemical components to airports on the border."

"According to our information, the regime began moving its stocks of weapons of mass destruction several months ago ... with the goal of putting pressure on the region and the international community."

The FSA's statement comes as the Syrian government appears to be stepping back from yesterday's warning that the regime has a chemical arsenal that it will use against foreign intervention.

Yesterday foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi publicly acknowledged Syria's chemical arsenal for the first time, saying that ?Those weapons will only be used in the case of exterior aggression.? Mr. Makdissi also said that the weapons ?will not be used against Syrian civilians,? and that ?they will never be used domestically no matter how the crisis evolves.?

But The Guardian writes that Syria's foreign ministry and information ministry have been "backpedaling furiously" from yesterday's statement, and speculates that Makdissi may have spoken out of turn. The Guardian notes that Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said that "When the foreign ministry spokesman says that Syria will not use chemical weapons against its people, then this doesn't mean that Syria has such weapons in the first place." And the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) claimed today that Makdissi's comments were taken out of context "as a declaration of possessing non-traditional weapons."

The Ministry said that the goal of the statement and the press conference wasn't to declare but rather to respond to a methodical media campaign targeting Syria to prepare world public opinion for the possibility of military intervention under the false premise of weapons of mass destruction (similar to what happened with Iraq) or the possibility of using such weapons against terrorist groups or civilians, or transporting them to a third party.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/UDN9PqMd-70/Chemical-weapons-Syria-backpedaling-furiously-over-weapons-threats

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