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19:18 GMT
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 17 (KUNA) -- A UN official on Monday told the Security
Council that the UN Department of Peace Keeping Operations (DPKO) has sent
kits to the troops in the Syrian Golan just in case chemical weapons will be
used by the Syria regime, at a time Damascus said it will definitely not use
such weapons and that they could rather be used by the opposition.
Following a regular briefing to the Council behind closed doors on the UN
Disengagement Observer Force in Syria (UNDOF), DPKO Chief Herve Ladsous told
reporters his department is providing those UNDOF forces which are not
equipped on a national basis with some kits to protect them from a chemical
environment, if it were to happen."
Asked if the UN takes the threats seriously, Ladsous said "we don't have
the means to verify. But we do notice that a number of countries are referring
to that possibility, and safety and security being the priority concern for
us, for me, we don't want to take a risk."
He acknowledged that the Force was having an "increasing difficulty in
fulfilling its mandate under very serious security conditions."
He told reporters that his Department has taken measures to enhance the
security. "We have redeployed to the area of UNDOF a number of armed vehicles
that were with other missions in the region."
He recalled that recent attacks on UNDOF forces resulted in five injuries,
two of them seriously and detention, "so the multiplication of incidents is of
great concern."
He also admitted that the UN continues to make contingency planning for
sending a UN Force to Syria, "based on a number of possible scenarios," but
would not elaborate.
In a related matter, Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar Ja'afari told the
Secretary-General and the Council President, Morocco, in separate letters that
in the course of this year, the American administration has persistently waged
a campaign "alleging that Syria could use chemical weapons in the current
crisis."
"We have repeatedly stated publicly and through diplomatic channels that
Syria will not under any circumstances use any chemical weapons that it may
have, because it is defending its people from terrorists backed by well-known
States, at the forefront of which is the United States of America," he
insisted.
"We are genuinely worried that certain States that support terrorism and
terrorists could provide the armed terrorist groups with chemical weapons, and
then claim they had been used by the Syrian Government," he added.
He quoted the Turkish newspaper Yurt as reporting that Al-Qaida members are
producing chemical weapons in a laboratory near the Turkish city of Gaziantep
and that they are threatening to use them against Syrian civilians.
"It would be more appropriate for the States leading the campaign against
Syria to monitor those actions and prosecute the terrorist perpetrators and
the parties that facilitated their access to chemicals," he suggested.
He recalled that Damascus, in order to protect its people, has requested
the United Nations Supervision Mission in the Syrian Arab Republic (UNSMIS),
when it was active in Syria, to visit a private sector chlorine laboratory
east of Aleppo in order to inspect and secure the contents, which terrorist
groups were planning to bring under their control.
He disclosed that the lab, which contains tons of toxic chlorine, was
"recently seized by terrorist groups. The fact that they did so during this
latest American and Western campaign means that the situation is all the more
dangerous."
Ja'afari warned that the terrorist groups "could use those weapons against
the Syrian people," and expressed regret that the international community has
not taken action to address these developments and hold the terrorist groups'
supporters accountable under the relevant Security Council resolutions."
He said the US campaign against Syria cannot mislead world public opinion,
"which has gradually come to realize the truth of the conspiracies against
Syria and the true reasons behind the continuing bloodshed, for which the
terrorist groups and their supporters will be held responsible by the world
and by history."
Also, in another related issue, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky confirmed today
that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Syrian Foreign Minister Walid
Al-Muallem to "make sure his views on the escalation in violence are being
heard at a high level in Damascus."
Ban issued a statement late Sunday strongly condemning the ongoing armed
violence in Syria, especially the targeting of civilians, including
Palestinian refugees in Yarmouk camp, and described it as a "war crime." (end)
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