Syrian regime threatens chemical warfare

The foreign ministry announcement came as Syria faces international isolation, a 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 rocked by an increasingly bold rebellion that has scored a string of successes in the past week, including a 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,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

“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.”

Syria is believed to have nerve agents as well as mustard gas, Scud missiles capable of delivering the chemicals and a variety of advanced conventional arms, including anti-tank rockets and late-model portable anti-aircraft missiles.

Israel will “have to act” if the Syrian regime collapses and there is a risk its chemical weapons and missiles could fall into the hands of militant groups, the Jewish state’s prime minister has warned.

The deteriorating situation of President Bashar Assad’s regime is stoking Israeli fears that militants affiliated with Lebanon’s Hezbollah group or al-Qaida could raid Syrian military arsenals for chemicals weapons or missiles that could strike Israel.

Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had not considered specifically trying to cross the border to seize the weapons. “There are other possibilities,” he said in an interview on Fox News.

Over the weekend, defence minister Ehud Barak said Israel would be prepared to attack Syrian weapons arsenals should the need arise.

Mr Netanyahu said preventing Syria’s weapons from falling into the wrong hands was key to Israeli security. “Could you imagine Hezbollah, the people who are conducting with Iran all these terror attacks around the world – could you imagine them having chemical weapons? It would be like al-Qaida having chemical weapons,” he said.

“It’s something that is not acceptable to us, not acceptable to the United States and to any peaceable country in the world.

“So I think that this is something we’ll have to act to stop if the need arises. And the need might arise if there’s a regime collapse, but not a regime change.”

When asked whether Israel was prepared to act alone, Mr Netanyahu said Syria’s stockpile was a “common concern” and that “we’d have to see if there was a common action to address that concern”.

The revelations came as state TV showed videos of sweeps by Syrian militia through Damascus neighbourhoods 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.

Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city with about three 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 it was launching an operation to take the city.