“If Syria Wants to Use Chemical Weapons, They Will Not Seem Small to Anyone”

American President Barack Obama reminded his Syrian colleagues that the use of chemical weapons is impermissible. While experts doubt that Damascus would resort to such drastic measures, they cannot rule out the scenario entirely.

When Obama cautioned Syria against the use of chemical weapons, he notified the Syrian Arab Republic’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, that in the event of a chemical attack, the regime will have to answer for its actions. On July 23, the Syrian authorities first acknowledged the country’s possession of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. A spokesman from the Syrian foreign ministry explained that they will use the weapons in the event of foreign troops entering the country.

Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent military expert, is sure that this is not an empty threat.

“Syria has nerve-paralysis weapons including sarin, soman and mustard gas, and they can use them with planes, missiles and chemical warheads on missiles that have ranges of at least 300 kilometers. However, that’s not to say that they aren’t faced with a few tactical problems. If the rockets have a shorter range, the charge will explode when they are brought down, and the chemical substances will aerosolize and cover only a small area. If the rocket flies too high and too fast, the flammable substances will just burn up and lose all their effectiveness,” Felgenhauer explains.

Boris Makarenko, a representative of the Center for Political Technologies, explains to Kommersant the possibility of chemical warfare in Syria.

“Chemical weapons have long been banned by international conferences. Now that the Syrian regime has confessed to having them, what is most important is understanding what the Syrians would consider to be ‘external aggression.’ In the event of NATO operations similar to the one in Libya or clashes on the Turkish border, Syria may want to use chemical weapons, and then they will not seem small to anyone. The Syrian regime is now waving a sword. Of course, the international community should be sure to remind Syria that there are conferences prohibiting the use of these weapons with the penalty of possibly being charged with war crimes. It would be good for Moscow to send such a warning to make sure that saner heads prevail,” Makarenko said.

Several countries in the Middle East are concerned about Syria’s chemical weapons program. For example, Israel fears that the weapons may fall into the hands of terrorists.