US closely watching Syrian chemical weapons

DOUGLAS BIRCH Associated Press Published:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. and its allies are closely monitoring Syria's large stockpiles of chemical arms and portable anti-aircraft missiles, a State Department official said Wednesday, amid concerns that the country's unconventional weapons could fall into the hands of terrorist or militant groups while the 11-month-old uprising continues.

Thomas A. Countryman, assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, drew a parallel with allied efforts to secure loose weapons in Libya during the fighting there, but called the situation in Syria "much more difficult."

"When you get to a change of regime in Syria -- and of course we don't know when that is -- it matters a great deal what are the conditions, whether it is a chaotic or a fairly orderly transfer " of power, Countryman told reporters. "We would certainly be prepared to work with any successor government to help them secure control of those weapons with the goal of destroying them."

Officials have said that the U.S. in particular is talking with its allies on ways to ensure that Syria's stockpile of portable anti-aircraft missiles, called Man-Portable Air Defense Systems, or MANPADS, aren't stolen or diverted.

"At this point we do wish to have the neighbors of Syria do something of the same prudential planning that the neighbors of Libya are doing," Countryman said, to try to stop weapons trafficking across their borders.

Countryman estimated that Syria has "tens of thousands" of the portable missiles, which are considered a threat to commercial aviation. The U.S. estimates that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had amassed an arsenal of 20,000 of the weapons.

Matthew Schroeder, a small arms researcher with the Federation of American Scientists, noted that Countryman's figure was much larger than previously published estimates, which put the number of Syria's portable missiles at just over 4,000. "Are Syria's stockpiles more advanced than Libya's? If so, this could be even more dangerous," Schroeder said.



The U.S. had a much better picture of Libya's weapons stockpile than it has of Syria's. Tripoli halted its weapons of mass destruction programs in 2003 as part of an agreement reached to improve relations with the West, and Moammar Gadhafi's remaining stocks of mustard gas were awaiting destruction when rebels drove him from power last year.

Syrian President Bashar Assad is believed to have nerve agents as well as mustard gas, Scud missiles capable of delivering these lethal chemicals and a variety of advanced conventional arms coveted by insurgent and terrorist groups, including late-model MANPADS and anti-tank rockets.









"Yet clearly we cannot rule out that some weapons may have leaked out of Libya," Shapiro told a non-proliferation group.




AP National Security Writer Robert Burns contributed to this report.