Syrian opposition may attack Israel with chemical weapons, Asad tells Russian TV

The USG Open Source Center translates an article from Russia’s Rossiya 24 TV containing quotes from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad alleging that Syrian rebels might surreptitiously use poison gas against Israel and blame it on the regime in order to provoke an American attack on Syria’s government. This is not a plausible theory.

Syrian opposition may attack Israel with chemical weapons, Asad tells Russian TV
Rossiya 24 TV
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Document Type: OSC Summary

Syrian opposition may attack Israel with chemical weapons, Asad tells Russian TV

Syrian President Bashar Al-Asad has told Russian TV it is possible that Syrian opposition forces may launch a chemical attack on Israel from an area controlled by government troops in order to provoke a US attack on Syria. He also repeated his assertion that some unnamed foreign countries were supplying opposition forces with “chemicals”.

In a recorded interview broadcast on state-owned Russian news channel Rossiya 24 on 12 September, the interviewer asked: “The Russian media reported recently that militants from the (Syrian) armed opposition may be preparing a provocation, they may use chemical weapons against Israel, and do it from a territory controlled by the Syrian Arab Army. Do you, as Syrian supreme commander-in-chief, possess this information? It is, after all, very dangerous.”

Asad’s reply was translated into Russian as follows: “Since it has been confirmed that chemicals have already been supplied by the armed groups (as heard; probably should be “to the armed groups”), and they have been used against our soldiers in Syria and against civilians, this means that these substances are there. On the other hand, we all know that these terrorist gangs and those who control them are trying to provoke a US attack. Before that, they tried to involve Israel in the Syrian crisis.

“It is absolutely possible that this information is correct and (the chemicals are to be) used for the purposes mentioned earlier.

“When there is a regional war, chaos increases, and when chaos increases, it is only natural that the territory becomes more open to terrorists gangs and they can inflict more losses and damage.

“These threats are a real challenge, because terrorists have chemicals, and there are countries which give them these chemicals.”

(Description of Source: Moscow Rossiya 24 TV in Russian — State-owned, 24-hour news channel (formerly known as Vesti TV) launched in 2006 by the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK), which also owns Rossiya TV and Radio Rossii)