Syria Uprising Causes Fear of Chemical Weapons Attack

Syria fears use of chemical weapons

The recent uprisings in Syria are loosening the grip of president Bashar al-Assad over his country. A new fear arises for world powers since they are worried he could loose control of a secret stockpile of chemicalweapons, this could give the forces of the regime access to deadly poison gas.

Syria is one of the eight states, along with Israel and Egypt, to have joined the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. This means that the world’s chemical weapon guardian has no jurisdiction to intervene there.

Western countries believe that Damascus has one of the world’s largest remaining stockpiles of undeclared chemical weapons. This includes mustard gas and the deadly VX nerve agent. The Syrian army is trained to use poison gas and, according to the United States and Israeli intelligence it can be deployed through long-range missiles. (AV)