Post date: Dec 06, 2012 4:19:37 PM
Syria's deputy foreign minister says he fears Western countries are voicing concerns of possible chemical weapons use in Syria in order to lay the ground for an intervention.
BEIRUT, LEBANON/DAMASCUS, SYRIA (DECEMBER 6, 2012) (AL-MANAR TV) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's deputy foreign minister accused on Thursday (December 6) Western powers of whipping up fears of a fateful move to the use of chemical weapons in Syria's civil war as a "pretext for intervention."
U.S. President Barack Obama and other NATO leaders have warned that using chemical weapons would cross a red line and have consequences, which they have not specified.Assad would probably lose vital diplomatic support from Russia and China that has blocked military intervention in the 20-month-old uprising that has claimed more than 40,000 lives.
The Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Maqdad said Damascus would not use chemical weapons but feared Western powers might 'plant' them in rebel hands.
"If Syria had chemical weapons, these weapons would definitely not be used against the people of Syria. We have strong fear of the existence of a conspiracy to use the weapons; by the United States and some European states, which might have supplied such weapons to terrorist organisations in Syria, in order to claim later that Syria is the one that used these weapons," Maqdad said.
Maqdad also warned against any retaliatory attack on Syria.
"What they must understand that any attack on Syria will not be just any 'walk in the park' for the Syrian people nor the Arab countries," he said.
Maqdad spoke as Germany's cabinet approved stationing Patriot anti-missile batteries on Turkey's border with Syria.
The step requires deployment of NATO troops that Syria fears could permit imposition of a no-fly zone over its territory and Maqdad said Damascus was prepared to deal with what he termed a "threat."
"(Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan's government has nothing and now it is beginning to (receive) support and aid from NATO. We have dealt with and are still dealing with such threats and psychological war, but we calculate everything," Maqdad said.
Exactly what Syria's army has done with suspected chemical weapons to prompt a surge of Western warnings is not clear.
Reports citing Western intelligence and defence sources are vague and inconsistent.
The perceived threat may be discussed in Dublin on Thursday when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton meet international Syriamediator Lakhdar Brahimi to try to put a U.N. peace process for Syria back on track.