WarSclerotic

Although Damascus has yet to officially comment on the newly announced Russian-American deal to disarm it from chemical weapons, a senior cabinet member in Syria said Saturday that Washington and the U.N. Security Council had effectively accepted most of the terms set by Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“We demanded that the U.S. destroyers and all the other battleships withdraw from the Syrian coastline — and that is what took place. We also got guarantees from the U.S. that it would not launch an attack on Syria,” he said. “There is no doubt that our determination in the face of threats from the U.S. and its allies made all those who entertained the notion of attacking us think again.”

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Saturday that the deal “was a testament to the victory of the resistance axis comprising Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas.”

Arab League foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Cairo this week to discuss the deal. Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said that “even though the Arab League supports every attempt to find a diplomatic solution and prefer it over military intervention,” he remained doubtful as to the implementation of the initiative to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapon program.

Free Syrian Army Commander Brig. Gen. Salim Idris said the deal was a “blow to the uprising in Syria; Assad is fooling the world. The Syrian regime has begun transferring chemical weapons to Lebanon and Iraq. The deal will allow Assad to continue slaughtering innocent people.”

Assad, it seems, is already preparing for the deal’s implementation by having his chemical weapon arsenal scattered across 50 sites. He hopes this would make it harder for the U.S. to launch an attack on the stockpiles or inspect them.

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal said the regime’s Unit 450, an elite unit that is heavily dominated by Alawites [Assad’s ethnic group], was responsible for the movement of chemical weapons. The paper claimed both American and Middle Eastern sources have confirmed this.

“The movements, activities and base locations of Unit 450 are so sensitive that the U.S. won’t share information with even trusted allies in the opposition for fear the unit would be overrun by rebels. … Even high-ranking defectors from the Syrian military that form the core of the rebel insurgency — including those who served in units trained to handle chemical attacks — said they hadn’t heard of Unit 450,” the paper reported, citing current and former U.S. officials. The paper said the most recent movement of chemical weapons took place just last week.

According to The Wall Street Journal, “U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies still believe they know where most of the Syrian regime’s chemical weapons are located, but with less confidence than six months ago.”