Jordan warns Syria on chemical weapons


04-12-2012 12:00 AM

Ammon News - AMMAN (UPI) Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh warned Tuesday the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime would be a "game changer."

"The regime knows that the international community will simply not accept for these weapons to be used in different scenarios: whether they are used by the regime against their own people or used against neighboring countries or fall into the wrong hands," Jordanian media outlets quoted Judeh saying.

The comments came a day after Israeli and Jordanian intelligence officials told The Atlantic that Jordan rejected Israeli requests to bomb Syrian chemical weapons sites. The report published Monday said Amman turned down a number of requests in the past two months, saying "the time was not right."

The Israeli requests were communicated through Mossad intermediaries dispatched by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office, the magazine said.

While Israel has the ability to attack the sites without Jordan's approval, Jerusalem is concerned of the possible repercussions of such an attack on Jordan, The Atlantic said.

"A number of sites are not far from the border," an unnamed official said. "The Jordanians have to be very careful about provoking the regime and they assume the Syrians would suspect Jordanian complicity in an Israeli attack."

The Atlantic report stated intelligence sources reported Israeli and U.S. drones are monitoring Syrian weapons sites and Israeli drones are in the skies over the Jordan-Syria border.

There was no official Israeli comment on the report but a source said Israel has been "talking with relevant parties" about the Syrian chemical weapons issue, The Jerusalem Post said.

The same source said Israel is concerned about the possible transfer of Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons, said to be the third largest in the world, to "unsavory actors" such as Hezbollah or al-Qaida, the Post said.

If this occurs the source said Israel "reserves the right to pre-empt."





  • no comments

Notice
All comments are reviewed and posted only if approved.
Ammon News reserves the right to delete any comment at any time, and for any reason, and will not publish any comment containing offense or deviating from the subject at hand, or to include the names of any personalities or to stir up sectarian, sectarian or racial strife, hoping to adhere to a high level of the comments as they express The extent of the progress and culture of Ammon News' visitors, noting that the comments are expressed only by the owners.
name : *
email
show email
comment : *
Verification code : Refresh
write code :