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U.S. Concerned as Syria Moves Chemical Stockpile – WSJ.com.

By JULIAN E. BARNES, JAY SOLOMON and ADAM ENTOUS

WASHINGTON—Syria has begun moving parts of its vast arsenal of chemical weapons out of storage facilities, U.S. officials said, in a development that has alarmed many in Washington.

The country’s undeclared stockpiles of sarin nerve agent, mustard gas and cyanide have long worried U.S. officials and their allies in the region, who have watched anxiously amid the conflict in Syria for any change in the status or location of the weapons.

American officials are divided on the meaning of the latest moves by members of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

Some U.S. officials fear Damascus intends to use the weapons against the rebels or civilians, potentially as part of a targeted ethnic cleansing campaign. But other officials said Mr. Assad may be trying to safeguard the material from his opponents or to complicate Western powers’ efforts to track the weapons.

Some said that Mr. Assad may not intend to use the weapons, but instead may be moving them as a feint, hoping the threat of a chemical attack could drive Sunnis thought to be sympathetic to the rebels from their homes.

Whatever the motivation, the evidence that the chemical weapons are coming into play could escalate the conflict in Syria, some fear. “This could set the precedent of WMD [weapons of mass destruction] being used under our watch,” one U.S. official said. “This is incredibly dangerous to our national security.”

The Obama administration has begun to hold classified briefings about the new intelligence. U.S. officials are particularly worried about Syria’s stocks of sarin gas, the deadly and versatile nerve agent. The officials wouldn’t say where weapons have been moved.

The new intelligence comes as the U.S. and its allies step up pressure on Russia to join an international drive to dislodge Mr. Assad from power. But the new information could cut both ways, officials said: It could bolster calls for international action to remove Mr. Assad, but also underline the risks of intervening against a military armed with weapons of mass destruction.

“This shows how complex this is,” a second official briefed on the matter said.

The Syrian government denied the chemical stockpiles have been moved.

“This is absolutely ridiculous and untrue,” said Syria’s foreign ministry spokesman, Jihad Makdissi. “If the U.S. is so well-informed, why can’t they help [U.N. envoy] Kofi Annan in stopping the flow of illegal weapons to Syria in order to end the violence and move towards the political solution?”

The White House, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon declined to comment.

Damascus is believed to possess one of the largest stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the Middle East. Syria never signed the 1992 Chemical Weapons Convention, the arms-control agreement that outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of such weapons.

Despite the new intelligence, U.S. officials said they believe that the weapons remain under Syrian government control.

The State Department reiterated U.S. warnings: “We have repeatedly made it clear that the Syrian government has a responsibility to safeguard its stockpiles of chemical weapons, and that the international community will hold accountable any Syrian officials who fail to meet that obligation,” said spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Syrian opposition leaders said that rebels have confiscated equipment from Syrian forces apparently meant to protect them during a chemical weapons attack.

Syria has long had the capability of placing its chemical agents in artillery shells and Scud missiles, U.S. officials have said. But chemical and biological weapons are difficult to deploy effectively. Sarin, for example, can be used either as a gas or to poison water supplies because it is heavier than air, but is hard to control when used as a weapon against a crowd of people.

The weapons are a danger not only to opponents, but also to the government’s own forces. In 2007, an accident at a chemical-weapons facility involving mustard gas killed several Syrians.

U.S. officials have held discussions with the Jordanian military, working on plans to have Jordan’s special operations forces secure the chemical and biological sites in the event that Assad’s government falls.

Because of the faulty intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction that were used to justify the Iraq war, U.S. officials are extremely cautious about using reports of Mr. Assad’s chemical stockpiles to support military intervention.

Some U.S. officials briefed on the matter said the information isn’t conclusive on what Mr. Assad’s forces intend to do with the weapons. These officials said the moves may be aimed at safeguarding the materials from enemies, rather than a sign Mr. Assad is preparing to use them.

Officials point out that Mr. Assad remains in power today largely because of international disagreement over how to handle the crisis. If he used a chemical weapon, they said, Western allies would likely rally around plans to more aggressively intervene and topple him from power.

But some American officials, who hold the view that the U.S. needs to do more to protect the Syrian population, fear that the chemical weapons have been moved in so they can be available for government-allied forces to use, should the rebels make further gains or the Syrian state begin to fall apart.

“The regime has a plan for ethnic cleansing, and we must come to terms with this,” the first U.S. official said. “There is no diplomatic solution.”

Some analysts and U.S. officials believe that if the Assad government is forced to abandon power, it would retreat to the Mediterranean coast, where the country’s Allawite population is concentrated. The Syrian regime since 2011 has attacked Sunni enclaves in the coastal areas otherwise dominated by the pro-government Allawite minority.

As the rebels continue to gain in key areas and the Assad regime is increasingly threatened, it could resort to chemical weapons, said Joseph Holliday, a former Army intelligence officer and an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.

“We can’t discount him using this, we just can’t,” Mr. Holliday said. “If we believe the Assad regime and their closest allies view this as an existential struggle, we have to assume they could use chemical weapons against their population at some point in the conflict.”

Opposition leaders maintain there are increasing indications that the Damascus regime is trying to cleanse strategic areas, such as Hama and Homs, of Sunnis in order to set up an ethnic state that could be defended by the Assads’ Allawite ethnic minority.

A delegation from the umbrella Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Council, visited Moscow this week and pressed the Russian government to use its leverage with the Assads to quell the violence, according to members of the group.

Qassim Saadaldin, spokesman for the rebels’ military leadership in the Syrian city of Homs, said the opposition has intelligence that the regime is readying biological or chemical weapons. “Assad is prepared to use these weapons should he consider his authority to be in jeopardy,” Mr. Saadaldin said.

Write to Julian E. Barnes at julian.barnes@wsj.com, Jay Solomon at jay.solomon@wsj.com and Adam Entous at adam.entous@wsj.com

US piles more sanctions on Iran – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Treasury Department announces news financial sanctions against 11 companies affiliated with Iran’s defense ministry, Revolutionary Guards and national shipping line

Associated Press

The Obama administration on Thursday hit Iran with more sanctions designed to hinder the country’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The Treasury Department announced new financial sanctions against 11 companies affiliated with the Iranian defense ministry, Revolutionary Guard Corps and national shipping line as well as a university, all for actions they took to support the programs. Several of the firms are already subject to US and European sanctions.

Treasury also slapped penalties on four men, including an Austrian national and three Iranians, for similar activity.

“Iran today is under intense, multilateral sanctions pressure, and we will continue to ratchet up the pressure so long as Iran refuses to address the international community’s well-founded concerns about its nuclear program,” said David Cohen, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial Intelligence.

“Today’s actions are our next step on that path, taking direct aim at disrupting Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs as well as its deceptive efforts to use front companies to sell and move its oil.”

The sanctions freeze any assets that the firms and individuals may have in US jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing business with them.

The affected firms include the Electronic Components Industries Co. and Information Systems Iran, subsidiaries of a company run by Iran’s defense ministry that make high tech communications equipment and computers; the Advanced Information and Communication Technology Center; Digital Media Lab; Value-Added Services Laboratory; Ministry of Defense Logistics Export; International General Resourcing FZE, which is based in the United Arab Emirates; Malek Ashtar University, which trains military technicians; and Good Luck Shipping, an Emirates-based affiliate of Iran’s previously sanctioned national shipping line, IRISIL.

The other two companies are Pentane Chemistry Industries; which manufactures components for Iran’s nuclear facilities and the Center for Innovation and Technology Cooperation, which aides in technology transfer from scientists to the Iranian military.

The four individuals are Iranian software engineer Hamid Reza Rabiee; Austrian Daniel Frosch, the owner of International General Resourcing FZE; Ali Fadavi, the naval commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hossein Tanideh, a former vice president of Pentane Chemistry Industries.

In addition, Treasury identified several front companies operating on behalf of the Iranian government and the sanctioned entities, including energy firms based in Hong Kong, Switzerland and Malaysia. The identifications mean they will now be subject to existing sanctions covering their parent or sister organizations.

Those firms include Petro Suisse Intertrade Company SA; Hong Kong Intertrade Company; Noor Energy (Malaysia) Ltd.; and Petro Energy Intertrade Company. All are said to be alleged fronts for Iran’s national oil company, which wanted to use them to evade existing sanctions. They also include the National Iranian Tanker Company.

The identifications “highlight Iran’s attempts to evade sanctions through the use of front companies, as well as its attempts to conceal its tanker fleet by repainting, reflagging, or disabling GPS devices,” Treasury said in a statement.

MI6 chief: Iran could go nuclear in 2 years – Israel News, Ynetnews.

John Sawyers says Britain foiled Iran’s attempts to produce nuclear weapons in 2008; FM Hague warns Tehran’s ambitions could spark ‘new Cold War’

AFP

Britain’s foreign intelligence chief believes Iran will acquire nuclear weapon capability within two years, the Daily Telegraph reported Friday.

MI6 Chief John Sawyers, in a rare public speech, spoke before a meeting of senior civil servants in London and said that British agents had foiled Iran’s attempts to produce a nuclear weapon as long as four years ago, according to the report.

“And so, the most serious round of nuclear proliferation since nuclear weapons were invented would have begun with all the destabilizing effects in the Middle East… And the threat of a new cold war in the Middle East without necessarily all the safety mechanisms – that would be a disaster in world affairs.”

“You’d have Iran as a nuclear weapons state in 2008 rather than still being two years away in 2012,” the report quoted Sawyers as saying.

“The Iranians are determinedly going down a path to master all aspects of nuclear weapons; all the technologies they need,” he said. “It’s equally clear that Israeland the United States would face huge dangers if Iran were to become a nuclear weapon state.”

He added that in such a case a military strikewould become increasingly likely.

“I think it will be very tough for any prime minister of Israel or president of the United Statesto accept a nuclear-armed Iran,” he suggested.

Iranian President Ahmadinejad in Natanz (Photo: EPA)

The US unleashed a fresh wave of sanctions against Iran on Thursday, ratcheting up pressure to convince Tehran to take seriously concerns about its suspected nuclear program.

The actions impose additional sanctions on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missileproliferation networks and identify Iranian “front” companies and banks to assist in compliance, the Treasury Department said.

“The Treasury and State Department actions target more than 50 entities tied to Iran’s procurement, petroleum, and shipping networks,” the Treasury said.

Iran has been subject to severe international economic sanctions over its controversial nuclear program, which Western powers believe masks an atomic weapons drive despite repeated denials by Tehran.

Earlier this week, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague warned that Iran’s pursuit of nuclear capabilities may trigger a “new Cold War.”

The Daily Telegraph quoted Hague as saying that “Iran was threatening to spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, which could be more dangerous than the original East-West Cold War – as there are not the same ‘safety mechanisms’ in place.

“It is a crisis coming down the tracks,” Hague said. “Because they are clearly continuing their nuclear weapons program… If they obtain nuclear weapons capability, then I think other nations across the Middle East will want to develop nuclear weapons.