SyriaWorries grow about Syria’s biological weapons capabilities, intentions
The debates among experts in Western and Middle Eastern intelligence services and militaries about the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime revolve around how many times Assad has used chemical weapons, not whether such weapons were used. Neighbors of Syria have become increasingly alarmed – and, in private, have expressed their anxiety in discussions with the United States – about another illicit Syrian WMD program: biological weapons. The readiness of the Assad regime to use one proscribed weapon – chemicals — has led to growing unease among Syria’s neighbors that the regime may not find it too difficult to violate other weapon-related taboos. Biological weapons could give the Assad regime an effective means of retaliation because, if the weapon is well-designed, the lethal contents would spread easily without leaving tell-tale signs about the origin of the attack – or even evidence that there has been an attack.
The debates among experts in Western and Middle Eastern intelligence services and militaries about the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime revolve around how many times Assad has used chemical weapons, not whether such weapons were used. The U.K. and French intelligence services say they have evidence of about fifteen instances of chemical weapons employment, while Israel and the United States say they can prove that chemical weapons were used eight times by Assad – once on 19 December 2012, four times in March this year, twice in May, and the last, headline-grabbing use on 21 August.
Neighbors of Syria have become increasingly alarmed – and, in private, have expressed their anxiety in discussions with the United States – about another illicit Syrian WMD program: biological weapons.
The Washington Post reports that Syria has had an active biological weapons research program for more than thirty years, and the worry now is that the beleaguered Assad regime would launch an effort to make a biological weapon.
Syria’s bioweapons program may have been largely inactive since the mid-1980s, but weapons specialists and Middle East experts say that those early research efforts are likely to have created the key ingredients for a weapon, including different types of deadly bacteria and viruses and the equipment required to convert them into deadly powders and aerosols.
The readiness of the Assad regime to use one proscribed weapon – chemicals — has led to growing unease among Syria’s neighbors that the regime may not find it too difficult to violate other weapon-related taboos.
Top intelligence officials in two Middle East countries told the Post’s Walter Pincus said they have been considering the possibility for biological weapons use by Syria, especially in the context of retaliation in the event of a military strikes against Syria.
Biological weapons could give the Assad regime an effective means of retaliation because, if the weapon is well-designed, the lethal contents would spread easily without leaving tell-tale signs about the origin of the attack – or even evidence that there has been an attack.
“We are worried about sarin, but Syria also has biological weapons, and compared to those, sarin is nothing,” said a senior Middle Eastern official, who like several others interviewed by Pincus, agreed to discuss intelligence assessments on the condition of anonymity. “We know it, and others in the region know it. The Americans certainly know it.”
