Israeli officials are calling for a review of the country’s ability to protect itself against a chemical weapons attack amid reports that Syria has begun to arm surface-to-surface missiles with a new, highly fatal nerve gas.
At the same time, Israel has warned Syria that any attack with chemical warfare would be met with a severe response.
Commenting on a report in the Israeli daily Ha’aretz that Syria started to fuel missiles with nerve gas, Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy said Israel has means “far and above what the other side can even imagine” to deter such threats.
He was apparently alluding to Israel’s nuclear arsenal, the existence of which Israeli officials have refused to confirm or deny.
Officials in Washington refused to confirm the details of the Israeli newspaper report, but pointed to the episode as proof that the global community needs to work towards implementing the Chemical Weapons Convention.
The treaty, which took effect this week, bans the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons.
The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty last week. Israel has signed the accord and pledged to adhere to its contents, but has not formally ratified the accord.
Syria, like most Arab states, has refused to sign the pact.
Ha’aretz reported that with the help of Russian experts, Syria has begun developing a fatal nerve gas called “VX.” The agent is far more difficult to counter than Sarin, the nerve gas Damascus is believed to currently have in its arsenal.
Unlike Sarin, which takes effect when inhaled, is easily dispersed by wind and can be countered through air-tight gas masks, VX appears in a powder form. It settles on the skin and can be absorbed into the body.
According to the newspaper report, Syria obtained the formula to produce VX from a Russian general and chemical weapons expert who is believed to have smuggled several cases of the material out of Russia.
The report on the nerve gas prompted renewed discussion in Israeli security circles of civil defense preparations against chemical warfare. The government planned to discuss the matter at its next Cabinet meeting.
Israeli army sources were quoted as saying that the Israel Defense Force must update its civil defenses against chemical warfare, in light of the advanced weapons.
An owner of one Israeli firm that manufactures gas masks and other equipment used against chemical warfare said the masks can protect individuals against breathing in the VX, but do not provide any protection against contact with the skin.
At the same time, U.S. defense officials said Israel could counter such an attack using weapon systems currently under development that would shoot down missiles before they began to descend on their targets.
Currently under joint U.S.-Israeli development, both the Arrow anti-missile missile and the Nautilus laser system are scheduled for deployment early next century.
Syria’s Al-Ba’ath newspaper on Wednesday called the report a “misleading campaign” by Israel to deflect attention away from the impasse in Middle East peace, which it blamed on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line stance.
Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai said reports that Syria was manufacturing nerve gas had surfaced earlier, and he has raised the matter in discussions with his British and American counterparts.
In an apparent effort to calm tensions, Mordechai said this week that Israel was not interested in any confrontation with Syria, and called on the sides to talk instead and try to reach peace.
At the same time, he warned any country from trying to provoke Israel.
U.S. officials have pledged to monitor the developments closely.
Meanwhile, the United States still considers Syria to be a state sponsor of terrorism, according to the State Department’s annual report on global terrorism issued this week.
While there is no evidence that Syrian officials have been directly involved in planning or executing international terrorism attacks since 1986, “Syria continues to provide safe haven and support for several groups that engage in such attacks,” the report states.
(JTA correspondent Matthew Dorf in Washington contributed to this report.)
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
