For about two decades, Syria has had a
consistent policy of chemical and biological arms acquisition that is
systematic and determined – and that has never been actually denied by
Syria. More than any other country, Syria has a policy of seeking
strategic parity with Israel which, in military terms, means obtaining
biological and chemical weapons, given that nuclear weapons are not
attainable for now. This pattern was shown by the chemical weapons
procured by Syria from Egypt in their joint preparations for the October
1973 Yom Kippur War, and even today, Assad, Mubarak and other Arab leaders
coordinate positions on refusing to adhere to the Chemical and Biological
Weapons Conventions.
Moreover, Syria possibly cooperates with
Egypt in biological and chemical arms acquisition today, and it certainly
does with Iran and probably with Libya. It has been aided - although not
necessarily through institutionalized channels – by Russia, China and
North Korea, in efforts to enlarge its longer-range surface-to-surface
missiles that carry operational chemical and biological warheads, among
them the Scud-C, the M-9 and the No-Dhong. Assistance in upgrading and
scaling up its chemical-biological capabilities is given also by other
formerly Soviet countries, India and, still, European firms. Several
facilities located in different sites in Syria are involved in these
efforts and are in part disguised as civilian buyers.
During recent years Syria has switched
from above-ground missiles and non-conventional weapons facilities to
underground storage and production, thereby significantly limiting
Israel’s ability to monitor and destroy those strategic facilities.
The first, and so far, only Syrian
employment of a chemical warfare agent took place in 1982 - it was the
lethal cyanide gas used by the Syrian regime in the slaughter of some
18,000 Sunni residents of the city of Hama, in Syria itself.
Ever since
then, Syria has made a very significant progress in the area of chemical
and biological weapons, which has various implications of major
importance. It built up an elaborate, large arsenal of sarin and VX nerve
agents containing aerial bombs and missile warheads, and formed a delivery
realignment that is capable of instantly launching those deadly weapons at
a variety of targets and objects in Israel, both strategic and tactical.
Biological warfare agents - anthrax, botulinum and others - have recently
been added to the Syrian inventory.
