USA is working together with its allies in the Middle East to “destroy the chemical weapons of the president’s government SiriusBashar al Assad”, and prevent them from falling into the wrong hands, a senior US official explained to the press.
This source explained that, in recent days, Joe Biden’s Government has made efforts to monitor the Syrian chemical arsenal with the aim of preventing possible use by terrorist groups or armed factions.
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The official assured that the US intelligence services have located this inventory of weapons and believe that it will remain safe. “We are taking very prudent measures. “We do everything possible to ensure that these materials are not available to anyone and remain protected,” he stated.
“We want to make sure that chlorine and even more dangerous substances are destroyed. There are several efforts in this regard with our regional partners“, explained the official.
During the 13-year Syrian civil war, Al Assad’s government has been accused on multiple occasions of using chemical weapons against its own population. These allegations have been corroborated by the United Nations and international organizations such as Human Rights Watch.
The deadliest attacks occurred in August 2013 in Ghouta (between 281 and 1,729 dead), in April 2017 in Khan Sheikhun (89 dead) and in April 2018 in Douma (43 dead and 500 civilians injured).
The most used chemical agent was chlorine, present in 91.5% of the attacks, along with sarin and mustard gas.
Before the deadliest attacks occurred, then-US President Barack Obama (2009-2017) warned Al Assad that the use of chemical weapons would be a “red line” that would trigger US military intervention.
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However, although Al Assad crossed that “red line”, there was no military intervention and Obama negotiated with Russia to force Al Assad to destroy his chemical weapons arsenals.
This process of destroying chemical weapons, however, was not carried out in its entirety, according to Washington, which believes that Al Assad’s government violated the agreement and kept part of its chemical arsenal.
Al Assad’s government, which had clung to power for 24 years, collapsed this Sunday at the hands of a coalition of insurgents who took Damascus with little resistance after 12 days of offensive throughout the country.
