Syria: Assad Regime 'Ready to Use Chemical Weapons'

BBC: The most senior Syrian politician to defect to the opposition has told the BBC the regime will not hesitate to use chemical weapons if it is cornered.

Nawaf Fares, ex-ambassador to Iraq, said unconfirmed reports indicated such weapons might have already been used.

The comments were made as clashes were reported in Baghdad Street, central Damascus, and fighting spread in suburbs around the city.

Syria peace envoy Kofi Annan is due to hold talks with Russia's president.

Russia is a key ally of Syria and the meeting comes amid mounting pressure for tougher international action against the country.

Syria has been in turmoil since March last year when an uprising against the government of President Bashar al-Assad began.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is due in Beijing for talks with the Chinese leadership, which has joined Russia in vetoing sanctions.

Diplomat[ic] efforts come as UN officials complained of huge obstacles put in the way of its aid operation in Syria.

'Wounded wolf'

Syria is known to have a significant stockpile of chemical weapons. There have been growing concerns in neighbouring countries and among Western governments about the security of such weapons should the regime fall.

Asked if he thought President Assad might use chemical weapons against the opposition, Mr Fares told BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner in an interview in Qatar that he would not rule it out, describing Mr Assad as "a wounded wolf and cornered". » | Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Nawaf Fares: 'The Syrian Regime Is Dead'
One of Syria's high-profile defectors explains what is really going on inside the corridors of power in Damascus.

Exclusive Interview: Why I Defected from Bashar al-Assad's Regime, By Former Diplomat Nawaf Fares
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The most senior Syrian official to defect from Bashar al-Assad's regime has told how the "tragic and unbelievable" destruction of his country moved him to join the growing opposition movement.

Nawaf Fares, a former regime hardliner and security chief who was Syria's ambassador to Iraq, spoke out in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Telegraph yesterday - his first since announcing his dramatic decision to quit last week. As the first senior diplomat to abandon the government, it is thought his departure may pave the way for others to follow, leaving President Assad's regime even more exposed.

Yesterday, in a wide-ranging interview conducted by telephone from Qatar, where he has now sought refuge, Mr Fares made a series of devastating claims against the Assad regime, which he said was determined to be "victorious" whatever the cost.

• Jihadi units that Mr Fares himself had helped Damascus send to fight US troops in neighbouring Iraq were involved in the string of deadly suicide bomb attacks in Syria

• The attacks were carried on the direct orders of the Assad regime, in the hope that it could blame them on the rebel movement

• President Assad, who had a "violent streak" inherited from his father, was now living "in a world of his own"

Mr Fares spoke out as the violence in Syria continued unabated, with at least 28 people killed across the country yesterday. The town of Khirbet Ghazaleh in southern Syria was attacked by hundreds of troops backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Meanwhile, United Nations observers visited the village of Treimsa, in central Hama province, in which up to 200 people are feared to have died on Thursday.

It was precisely such atrocities as these that forced Mr Fares to gradually question his own allegiance to the regime, ending 35 years of loyal service in which he worked as a policeman, regional governor and political security chief, becoming entrusted with some of its most sensitive tasks.

"At the beginning of the revolution, the state tried to convince people that reforms would be enacted very soon," he said. "We lived on that hope for a while. We gave them the benefit of the doubt, but after many months it became clear to me that the promises of reform were lies. That was when I made my decision. I was seeing the massacres perpetrated – no man would be able to live with himself, seeing what I saw and knowing what I know, to stay in the position." » | Ruth Sherlock, Beirut | Saturday, July 14, 2012

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