Rebel leader: Syria moving its chemical weapons into Iraq, Lebanon

[k98nights]

Rebel leader: Syria moving its chemical weapons into Iraq, Lebanon

 

By Mick Krever, CNN

September 13, 2013 -- Updated 1129 GMT (1929 HKT)

 

 

Putin's swipe at Obama increases tension

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Gen. Salim Idriss claims he has info showing Syria is moving chemical weapons
• Senior Israeli officials say they haven't seen such movement; Iraq firmly denies it
• The Free Syrian Army chief says the rebels are getting "a lot of support" from the U.S.
• He stresses that chemical weapons are one of many serious problems in Syria

 

(CNN) -- The head of the opposition Free Syrian Army told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday he has intelligence showing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government is moving its chemical weapons out of the country.

"Today, we have information that the regime began to move chemical materials and chemical weapons to Lebanon and to Iraq," Gen. Salim Idriss said from inside Syria.

CNN could not independently verify Idriss' claim.

Several senior Israeli officials told CNN's Elise Labott that they have not seen movements into Lebanon or Iraq, and that they did not believe it made sense for the Syrians to be moving weapons so soon.

 

And Iraq categorically denied that chemical weapons had crossed into its territory, with an adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki speculating "there is a political agency behind this claim."

"We were the victims of chemical weapons under Saddam's regime," said the adviser, Ali al-Moussawi. "And we will never allow to let any country to transfer chemical materials to our lands at all."

Still, if the allegation were true, it could fundamentally shift the assessments of U.S. intelligence officials, CNN's Barbara Starr reports.

Namely, these officials have said that al-Assad would not disperse his stockpile of chemical weapons because he knows the United States would not bomb it, that Syrian security forces firmly control the weapons and that there exists a large, secure infrastructure that has been moving these arms from rebel-held areas.

Moving these weapons into Iraq, Lebanon or some other country outside Syria might prompt U.S. intelligence authorities to question whether they were being transferred by a rogue element or whether it was evidence of a crack in the government's control.

The Syrian opposition is afraid, Idriss told CNN's Amanpour, that al-Assad's forces will then use those weapons sometime in the future -- even after the international effort to collect and destroy its chemical weapons arsenal is finished.

"The regime," he said, "is behaving like Saddam Hussein."

Idriss said he talked Thursday about what's happening diplomatically with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who the rebel leader claimed told him "that he will discuss with the Russians how honest the regime is."

"And if our friends discover that the regime is trying to play games and waste time," Idriss said by way of summarizing Kerry's remarks, "the threat of the strikes is still on the table."

Earlier on Thursday, Idriss told NPR that he had not received "any weapons from our American friends," despite reports that lethal aid had indeed started reaching the Syrian opposition.

That includes a U.S. official who told CNN on Wednesday that light and anti-tank weapons as well as ammunition -- paid for by the United States albeit made elsewhere -- had begun flowing to Syrian rebels over the past two weeks.

Idriss told Amanpour that he "can't talk about weapons," though he did stress that opposition forces were getting help.

"We are getting now a lot of support from our American friends, but I can't talk in detail about all kinds of the support," he said.

For its part, the opposition will support efforts to take control of and eventually dismantle Syria's chemical weapons, with Idriss saying, "We will do our best to help them." But the rebel leader questioned that things will play out as hoped.

"I think the regime will prevent them to go to the locations and to do their job," Idriss said. "I think the regime will tell them, 'Today you can't go out of the hotels because the situation is very dangerous, and tomorrow you can't go,' and they will delay and delay."

And even if Idriss is proven wrong and Syria's chemical weapons are wiped out as part of this process, the rebel leader stressed that bigger issues remain in a civil war that the U.N. estimates has killed more than 100,000 people -- most of them by conventional weapons.

"We have many, many problems with the regime," he said. "The chemical weapons (are) not ... the only problem that we have."

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/12/world/meast/syria-rebel-leader-accusation/index.html

[dinarling00]

Well there's a HUGE surprise - Here Iraq, here are your chemical weapons back. They are way to hot for us to hide for you anymore. Oh, by the way, we did use some to wipe out a couple hundred thousand people. And the funny part is the infidels can't figure out if the "good" bad guys did it, or the "bad" good guys did it  

[Kaduku]

KENYAN MUSLIM AND THE RUSSIAN ROULETTE...WHAT A MATCH OF CORRUPTIONS!!!!

[WISKY291]

Well there's a HUGE surprise - Here Iraq, here are your chemical weapons back. They are way to hot for us to hide for you anymore. Oh, by the way, we did use some to wipe out a couple hundred thousand people. And the funny part is the infidels can't figure out if the "good" bad guys did it, or the "bad" good guys did it  

Nailed it.

[zzztop]

What's funny is that no one is even the slightest bit concerned about the 100,000+ that have been killed with conventional weapons.

[Raleighwood]

That would explain why they wanted a month before letting them in to check and help dispose of those weapons!

[stealthwarrior]

^{WOW,back into Iraq huh?how ironic that Iraq moved them to Syria when Bush was president.}

[pontiyak]

"Syria moving its chemical weapons into Iraq"    This makes me both laugh out loud and cry at the same time....

 

Where do you think Syria got their chemical weapons from in the first place.?

 

Saddam shipped them out TO SYRIA at the start of the second Iraq war....

 

I know this to be fact because it was on CNN.

 

CNN showed a live shot of miles and miles of large transport trucks, some of them military traveling out of the country to Syria, and

 

they reported that they had good intel that some trucks were loaded with chemical weapons...

 

sheesh ~

 

The best things in life RV

 

yak

 

OOpps ...should have read everyone else's replys first...  Let see CNN report on the hipocracy now..

[VIZIOIRAQI]

"Syria moving its chemical weapons into Iraq"    This makes me both laugh out loud and cry at the same time....

 

Where do you think Syria got their chemical weapons from in the first place.?

 

Saddam shipped them out TO SYRIA at the start of the second Iraq war....

 

I know this to be fact because it was on CNN.

 

CNN showed a live shot of miles and miles of large transport trucks, some of them military traveling out of the country to Syria, and

 

they reported that they had good intel that some trucks were loaded with chemical weapons...

 

sheesh ~

 

The best things in life RV

 

yak

 

OOpps ...should have read everyone else's replys first...  Let see CNN report on the hipocracy now..

Exactly everyone knows this so why doesn't the news bring it back out in the open ! Someone is hiding something or trying to , but most already know the truth!

[Brisco]

What's funny is that no one is even the slightest bit concerned about the 100,000+ that have been killed with conventional weapons.

I guess there is a difference between WEAPONS of MASS DESTRUCTION &

WEAPONS of normal DESTRUCTION

Personally I think killing women and children is HUMAN DESTRUCTION any way you put it.

I say outlaw the hole mess, maybe the throwing of shoes and stabbing goats in the heart is the way to go.

These eastern countries have been deceiving, lying,cheating, fighting and killing each other way longer than we have even been A country.

Why is it the BIGGEST ATTROSOTIES it the history of the WORLD have been COMMITTED in the name of Religion.

I do not think this is what GOD had in mind.