The Syrian regime Monday said it had the capability to use its chemical and biological weapons in case of a foreign attack, in its first ever acknowledgment 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," Mr. 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 Mr. Makdissi read out promised not to use the weapons against the Syrian people, he later noted that Syria isn't facing an internal enemy in the rebellion, which the regime has described as being funded from abroad and driven by foreign extremists.
The Syrian government later tried to back off from the announcement, sending journalists an amendment to the statement read out by Makdissi adding the phrase "if any," in attempts to return to their previous position of neither confirming or denying the existence of unconventional weapons.
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 antitank rockets and late-model portable antiaircraft missiles.
On Monday, Iraqi state TV said the country's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki formally authorized the entry of Syrian refugees into his country. For years, Iraqis would head to Syria to escape widespread sectarian fighting during the worst of violence in their homeland between 2005 and 2007.
COMMENT: We (the world) should be worried, he could pull a 'Saddam Hussein' but use them on the Syrian people.
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