Syria says will use chemical
weapons if attacked
Jul 23, 8:06 AM EDT
PAUL SCHEMM and
BEN HUBBARD
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- The Syrian regime threatened Monday
to use its chemical and biological weapons in case of a foreign attack, in its
first ever acknowledgement that it possesses weapons of mass destruction.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi vowed, however,
that Damascus
would not use its unconventional arms against its own citizens. The
announcement comes as Syria
faces international isolation, a tenacious rebellion that has left at least
19,000 people dead and threats by Israel to invade to prevent such
weapons from falling into rebel hands.
Syria's decision to reveal the long suspected existence of
its chemical weapons suggests a desperate regime deeply shaken by an
increasingly bold rebellion that has scored a string of successes in the past
week, including a stunning bomb attack that killed four high-level security
officials, the capture of several border crossings and sustained offensives on
the regime strongholds of Damascus and Aleppo.
"No chemical or biological weapons will ever be used,
and I repeat, will never be used, during the crisis in Syria no matter what the developments inside Syria,"
Makdissi said in news conference broadcast on Syrian state TV. "All of
these types of weapons are in storage and under security and the direct supervision
of the Syrian armed forces and will never be used unless Syria is exposed to external
aggression."
While the statement Makdissi read out promised not to use
the weapons against the Syrian people, he later noted that Syria is not facing
an internal enemy in the rebellion, which the regime has described as being
funded from abroad and driven by foreign extremists.
Syria
is believed to have nerve agents as well as mustard gas, Scud missiles capable
of delivering these lethal chemicals and a variety of advanced conventional
arms, including anti-tank rockets and late-model portable anti-aircraft
missiles.
Israel
has said it fears that chaos following Assad's fall could allow the Jewish
state's enemies to access Syria's
chemical weapons, and has not ruled out military intervention to prevent this
from happening.
A senior U.S. intelligence official said Friday the Syrians
have moved chemical weapons material from the northern end of the country,
where the fighting was fiercest, apparently to both secure it, and to
consolidate it, which U.S. officials considered a responsible step.
But there has also been a disturbing rise in activity at
the installations, so the U.S.
intelligence community is intensifying its monitoring efforts to track the
weapons and try to figure out whether the Syrians are trying to use them, the
official said.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the
still-evolving investigation.
Makdissi did not discuss last week's bombing claimed by the
rebels that killed four top Syrian security officials, but assured journalists
that the situation was under control, despite reports of clashes throughout the
country and especially in the major cities of Aleppo and the capital Damascus.
"Yes, there were clashes on certain streets in certain
neighborhoods, but the security situation is now much better. Everyone is
feeling reassured," he said. "We are not happy about this, but this
is an emergency situation and it will not last more than a day or two and the
situation will return to normal."
His comments were backed up by activist videos taken Monday
morning showing sweeps by Syrian militia through Damascus neighborhoods once held by rebels,
kicking down doors and searching houses in mop up operations against the
fighters that had managed to hold parts of the capital for much of last week.
It was a different story in Aleppo,
however, where the Britain-based Syria Observatory reported fierce fighting in
a string of neighborhoods in the northeast of Syria's largest city, including
Sakhour and Hanano.
Several videos posted by activists showed cheering rebels
celebrating around a burning tank in Sakhour and driving around another one
they had captured.
The Observatory said many people fled these neighborhoods
in the subsequent lulls in the fighting. The Associated Press could not
independently verify the battle scenes shown in the videos posted by the
activists.
Aleppo,
Syria's biggest
city with about 3 million residents, has been the focus of rebel assaults by a
newly formed alliance of opposition forces called the Brigade of Unification.
The group said Sunday it was launching an operation to take the city. Much of
the fighting in the large city has been confined to neighborhoods in the
northeast.
Even as the government appeared to be reasserting control
in the capital after the weeklong rebel assault, the Arab League offered Syrian
President Bashar Assad and his family a "safe exit" if he steps down.
"This request comes from all the ... Arab states: Step
aside," said Qatari Prime Minister Hamid bin Jassim Al Thani at an Arab
League foreign ministers meeting in Doha, Qatar, that concluded at dawn Monday.
He urged Syria
to form a temporary transitional government to plan for a possible post-Assad
era. Makdissi dismissed the offer as "flagrant interventionism."
The Arab League has already suspended Syria's membership and it is
doubtful that Assad will pay much attention to their calls. He ignored a
similar request to step down in exchange for asylum by Tunisian President
Moncef Marzouki last February.
---
AP security writer Kimberly Dozier in Washington and
Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus,
Syria,
contributed to this report.
