WarSclerotic

Israel Hayom | ‘Israeli strike on chemical stockpiles is a declaration of war’.

Syrian officials tell Kuwaiti paper that Israeli leaders’ comments on pre-emptive strike on Syrian WMD are “childish” and that such action might force Syria to launch chemical attack on Israel • Israelis get their gas masks ready.

Syria would not shy away from a chemical attack against Israel should the latter launch a strike against the regime’s unconventional weapons facilities, Syrian officials have told the Kuwaiti daily Al-Ra’i.

Israeli Radio reported that the sources told the paper Syria would view an Israeli attack on its chemical weapon stockpiles as a declaration of war and might subsequently turn those weapons against Israel. They noted that an Israeli attempt to wipe out Syria’s chemical weapons might lead to chemical warfare agents being released. The resulting contamination could lead to a large number of fatalities and force Syria’s hand into responding.

The sources also ridiculed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s recent statements about a possible Israeli pre-emptive attack on Syria to prevent chemical weapons from reaching the hands of Hezbollah or other terrorist groups, Israel Radio reported.

“These statements are childish and were made without much thought,” one source said, explaining that the Israeli leaders had failed to fully comprehend the ramifications of an Israeli decision to attack.

This is the second time this week that Syrian officials have threatened to use chemical weapons against a foreign attacker, although this is the first time that Israel was explicitly mentioned.

There has been an upswing in the number of Israelis requesting state-issued gas masks this week, amid mounting fears that Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles could be used against them as the crisis there deepens. The lines at a gas mask distribution center Wednesday at a shopping mall in the Jerusalem suburb of Mevaseret Zion reflected the growing concern.

Gas mask filters have a limited life, and the government has distributed the protective devices off and on over the past two decades.

The Israeli postal service, which distributes gas masks at special centers, noted a sharp increase in demand this week. On average, 2,200 masks are handed out per day, but on Monday the figure rose to 3,700 and on Tuesday to 4,200, said postal service spokeswoman Merav Lapidot.

“I imagine that it is related [to Syria], because I can’t think of any other reason people would all of a sudden remember to come,” she said.

Some 4.2 million Israelis have masks at home, but the remaining inventory will not be enough for a population of nearly 8 million, Lapidot said. “The Homefront Command has said time and again that the budget has run out … and there’s not enough money to buy for all,” she said.

On Monday, Syria said it would use its chemical and biological weapons if the country faced a foreign attack, in what marked the first time that the regime has acknowledged it has weapons of mass destruction. The statement, released by Foreign Ministry Spokesman Jihad Makdissi suggested that President Bashar al-Assad would continue the fight to stay in power, regardless of the cost. Makdissi also said the weapons were secure.

On Tuesday, the main rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, said the Syrian government had moved chemical weapons to airports on its borders. On Wednesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the state-owned Itar-Tass news agency that Moscow had received “firm assurances” from Damascus that its Syrian chemical arsenal was “fully safeguarded.”

Russia also accused the U.S. of trying to justify terrorism against the Syrian government, and berated Western nations it said had failed to condemn a bomb attack that killed senior security officials. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, referring to what he said were comments by U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland indicating such attacks were not surprising, said on Wednesday that “this is a direct justification of terrorism.”

“To put it mildly, we don’t understand the refusal of our partners to condemn the terrorist attack in Damascus,” he said. He suggested that Washington was using the threat of further domestic attacks to push the U.N. Security Council into passing a resolution that would authorize tougher sanctions and even the use of force.

The Lebanese paper al-Joumhouria reported Wednesday that Assad had turned down Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nassrallah’s offer of a safe haven in Beirut’s Dahiya neighborhood, which is predominantly Shi’ite. Dahiya is also where the terrorist organization’s main operational headquarters are thought to be based.

The paper reported that Nassrallah called Assad to offer his condolences in the wake of last week’s fatal attack on the Syrian national security meeting in Damascus in which senior regime officials were killed, among them Assad’s trusted confidant and brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, who was also a general in the Syrian military, and Defense Minister Daoud Rajha. The attack was attributed to the Syrian rebels.

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