Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has produced new chemical weapons that U.S. intelligence officials he might use in a last-ditch effort to save his own neck, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Islamic State (ISIS), Al Qaeda and rebel forces have taken over most of Syria.
President Barack Obama, with great fanfare, removed a threat last year to bomb Syria when an agreement was reached for Assad to allow international inspectors to remove his stockpile of chemical and biological weapons, forbidden under the Geneva Convention.
It is questionable whether Assad disclosed his entire stockpile, and all it takes is one warehouse of chemical weapons to unleash a nightmare.
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former commanding officer of the British army’s chemical-weapons unit, told the Journal:
Even if the regime had only one ton of VX left, that would be enough to kill thousands of people.
Trusting Assad is likely trusting Iran to come clean on its nuclear program.
And even if inspectors did find all of Assad’s weapons, nothing prevented him from producing new chemicals, which is exactly what he apparently has done.
Instead of sarin gas, which Assad used in 2013 in attacks that killed more than 1,400 people, he has developed a new chemical bomb using chlorine, according to the Journal, which added that U.S. official suspect that Assad may have hidden some of his chemical weapon stockpile last year.
That should not be surprising to anyone except the same American officials who really think that Iran will live up to an agreement just as Assad did not.
The American intelligence information on Assad’s chemical weapons is “being taken very seriously because he’s getting desperate,” according to officials quoted by the Journal.
The Assad regime, of course, denies it has any chemical weapons.”Experts have been saying for more than three years that Assad won’t last another six months.
Eventually, they will be correct.