This morning's key headlines from
GenerationalDynamics.com:
- Is Syria's Assad likely to use his aging chemical weapons arsenal?
- Syria's opposition increasingly frustrated by lack of American support
- Egypt's president Morsi considers making concessions to opposition
Is Syria's Assad likely to use his aging chemical weapons arsenal?
There have been growing fears in the last week that a desperate Syrian
president Bashar al-Assad was positioning chemical weapons for use in
the near future, but some experts are suggesting that the weapons are
too old to be used effectively. Syria is thought to have hundreds of
tons of chemical weapons material, including not only sarin and
mustard gas but possibly also the nerve agent VX, which, like sarin,
kills by attacking the central nervous system. However, these weapons
date back almost 40 years when Assad’s father, President Hafez Assad,
began accumulating them. Iraq's Saddam Hussein used sarin and mustard
gas on Kurds in northern Iraq in 1987-88, killing thousands of people,
and some experts believe that Saddam transferred his remaining
chemical weapons to al-Assad in 2002, just prior to the American
ground invasion of Iraq. The use of such old technology weapons could
backfire, and could end up killing al-Assad's troops as well as the
opposition troops, and some analysts suggest that al-Assad would
refrain from using them for that reason. AP
Syria's opposition increasingly frustrated by lack of American support
At a moment when Syria's rebels are closing in on Damascus and have a
chance of toppling president Bashar al-Assad, the United States
administration will be unable to influence events because they've avoided
getting too deeply involved. Though the administration has provided
diplomatic pressure, humanitarian relief and nonlethal aid, it has
been unwilling to supply arms or to use U.S. military force to set up
a no-fly zone, as it did in the Libyan civil war last year.
Some analysts are concerned that lack of American involvement is
causing some Syrian rebels to link up with terrorist militias.
On the military side, the U.S. seems to preparing to get involved. As
we've reported, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier
transited the Suez Canal on Saturday, and is now stationed off Syria's
shores. Debka, which sometimes gets things wrong, is quoting its
military intelligence sources as saying that Nato-Arab military
intervention in Syria is imminent, with participation of the U.S.,
France, Britain, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar. the
French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle carrying a complement of
marines is deployed in the Mediterranean, having joined the USS
Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group and at least five British warships
which are also carrying a large marine force. LA Times and Debka
Egypt's president Morsi considers making concessions to opposition
Friday is usually the biggest day for protests in the Arab world,
because people pour out of mosques onto the streets after Friday
midday prayers. Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians took to the
streets on Friday in Cairo and cities around Egypt to protest the
policies of president Mohamed Morsi. The demonstrations were mostly
peaceful, with only a few injuries. Morsi's cabinet sent out signals
that several concessions were being considered to end the turmoil.
These included amending several of the more controversial articles of
the draft constitution, and postponing the referendum on ratifying the
constitution. However, there will only be a postponement "if the
opposition accepts dialogue without preconditions. ... The political
forces who demand the delay of the referendum must provide guarantees
that there will not be appeals [against the delay] in courts."
Al-Ahram (Cairo)
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