With the tension in Syria still raging after months of fighting, many now wonder if Assad will turn to Syrian chemical weapons as a desperate last-ditch attempt to fight off rebels.
After meeting with NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Hillary Clinton said, “Our concerns are that an increasingly desperate Assad regime might turn to chemical weapons, or might lose control of them to one of the many groups that are now operating within Syria.”
She continues, “We have sent an unmistakable message that this would cross a red line and those responsible would be held to account.”
However, numerous Syrian activists have criticized Clinton’s fear over the possible use of Syrian chemical weapons, claiming it’s a distraction.
“I don’t think the regime will use chemical weapons – it’s just a media game for the purpose of prolonging the revolution, so the Syrian people become more divided and the regime has more time,” said Walat Ahmae, a member of the Syrian National Council based in Antakya, Turkey. “We have known that there are chemical weapons from the start, so this isn’t a new or more worrying threat.”
A report by NBC News on Thursday states Pentagon officials confirm that Assad has been arming Syrian chemical weapons with nerve gas. Other US officials told the Associated Press that Assad’s military has been moving chemical stockpiles.
This information seems to clash with the official statements flowing from Syria’s crumbling government infrastructure, as Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, came forward to say, “I repeat for the hundredth time that even if such weapons exist in Syria, they will not be used against the Syrian people.” He added, “We would not commit suicide.”
In fact, Mekdad has gone so far as to claim that Western governments are the ones creating Syrian chemical weapons, with the intent of handing them to rebels and then blaming the Assad regime for their existence.
Whether there are or are not chemical weapons, though, it’s clear that the topic is beginning to divide parties onto separate sides, and only time will reveal how this situation develops.
<img class=”size-medium wp-image-28800″ title=”Hillary Clinton at a Nato meeting in Brussels” src=”https://socialmediaseo.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/clinton-syria-chemical-weapons-300×180.jpg” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”180″ /> Clinton speaking on the existence and use of Syrian chemical weapons.
