Tough warning to Assad over chemical arms

PARIS: Western powers are preparing a tough response if Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime deploys chemical or biological weapons in its civil war, key European officials warned yesterday.
Syria’s leadership has said the country, which is believed to have nerve agents as well as mustard gas and Scud missiles capable of delivering them, could use chemical or biological weapons if it were attacked from outside.
“Our response ... would be massive and blistering,” if Assad’s forces used such weapons, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague told the House of Commons that he had asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to begin preparations so the UN could quickly deploy experts to make checks if “we have any reports of such chemical weapons being used or moved.”
Hague said the US, France and Britain had been clear to Assad that the use of chemical weapons could prompt a dramatic change in their handling of Syria’s civil war.
President Barack Obama has called the issue a “red line” for the US.
“We have not ruled out any options as this crisis deepens,” Hague told lawmakers.
Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron has said the UK had no plans to intervene militarily in Syria, but that the use of chemical weapons would lead him to “revisit” that approach.
Fabius confirmed that Western countries were monitoring the movement of the weapons in Syria to be ready to “step in” immediately if necessary. “We are discussing this notably with our American and English partners,” he said.
The French minister said Russia and China were “of the same position,” but did not elaborate.

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