Friday, December 28, 2012

Syria - Chemical Weapons Out Of Control ?


Arabic background information further down !
Last Update: December 29, 2012.


Yesterday, December 27, France 24 - International news quoted a report by Agence France Press AFP. The gist of it is as follows:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II in Amman recently to discuss violence in Syria and the country's chemical weapons stock, Israeli media said Thursday [i.e. Dec 27].

Public radio, as well as several local newspapers, said Israeli and Jordanian officials had confirmed the meeting, which was first reported in the Al-Quds al-Arabi daily on Wednesday.

A spokesman for Netanyahu declined to comment on the reports.

The date of the meeting has not been reported, but Israeli media said the meeting focused on the regional threat posed by Syria's chemical weapons stocks.

"Both sides arrived at the meeting with maps in hand," the Yediot Aharonot daily said. "Their maps marked the various sites across Syria where the forbidden weapons are being stored."

The newspaper cited Jordanian officials as saying the king and Netanyahu "raised situation assessments about the 'day after Assad,' and examined the danger posed by the chemical weapons in Syria to the neighbouring countries, first and foremost Jordan and Israel."


On December 27, the information was distributed as well by People's Network, Beijing. Today, December 28, it can be found on a large variety of Chinese networks. The following screenshot has been taken from an official Chinese website in Hebei province dedicated to plannings and legal proceedings:



以色列和约旦领导人秘密商讨叙利亚局势

Israeli and Jordanian leaders held secret talks on the situation in Syria.


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Arabic Background Information


The below articles have been found in the archives of Al-Quds al-Arabi, the well-known Palestinian daily, during a search for information related to "chemical weapons":



The first article, dating back to December 4, is quoting the Jordanian foreign minister Nasser Judeh saying the use of chemical weapons in Syria would necessarily lead to an international intervention.

The second article, dating back to December 24, is citing Russia's foreign minister Sergej Lavrov saying the use of chemical weapons in Syria would be kind of "political suicide" for the Syrian regime of Bashir al-Assad.

The third article that is showing a map of Syria seems to be a mere update of the above article from December 24 quoting Russia's foreign minister. Furthermore, that article is citing a related AFP report.


Above: A Syrian store of chemical weapons / Map of Syria

Another related blogspot of mine published in December 2012:
Syria - Assad's Dangerous Games


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مرسي: أمن منطقة الخليج مسؤولية قومية و سنقف ضد أى تدخل عسكري في سوريا

Morsy: Security of the Gulf region is [a matter of] national responsibility and will [smash] any armed intervention in Syria whatsoever.


[Source: Al-Jazeera, Arabic TV, in their broadcast "Revolution Talk" on December 29, 2012. The quotation of Egypt's president Morsy has been taken from his speech before Egypt's parliament on the same day.]

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