MESOP LATEST: – ASSAD & THE DAILY BEAST – More & more sophisticated chemical weapons

The Daily Beast on Thursday cited a range of Western intelligence analysts converging on the assessment that Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime not only has a secret cache of undeclared chemical weapons – which the outlet said included “crude chlorine-filled bombs, secret stockpiles of sophisticated nerve gasses or their components” – but also the stored institutional knowledge to “rebuild a larger-scale, higher-grade chemical weapons effort” once the international community has turned its attention away from Syria.

The outlet noted that widely broadcast reports regarding the eradication of Assad’s chemical arsenal only take into account “the chemical arsenal Assad admitted he had” as part of a deal under which Damascus agreed to turn over its chemical weapons in exchange for the West suspending what appeared to be imminent airstrikes. The Daily Beast however conveyed that there there is “mounting concern that the Syrian regime may have a second unconventional weapons program—one Assad never told the international community about.” That program is thought by Western intelligence analysts to include biological weapons, undeclared chemical materials, and chemical weapons such as chlorine that are not outright banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). The news comes amid deepening worries among Western diplomats that Syrian forces have embarked on a campaign of using chlorine bombs to target civilians and fighters in rebel-heavy areas, a development that Foreign Policy had flatly stated if confirmed would “cast a dark cloud” over last September’s deal. Meanwhile questions are also mounting about the regime’s willingness to turn over even its declared CWC-proscribed arsenal. Reports have been piling up that Assad is dragging his feet on the obligation – the question came up on Friday at a Department of Defense press briefing – and Reuters reported the same day that rebel forces have in the meantime closed in on the last known stockpile of Syrian chemical weapons.