U.S. warns Syria against chemical-weapon attack

A Syrian soldier aims his rifle at free Syrian Army fighters during clashes in the Damascus suburb of Daraya on Sunday. Syrian warplanes and artillery pummeled areas in and around Damascus, Aleppo and several other cities, according to reports received by human-rights activists.
A Syrian soldier aims his rifle at free Syrian Army fighters during clashes in the Damascus suburb of Daraya on Sunday. Syrian warplanes and artillery pummeled areas in and around Damascus, Aleppo and several other cities, according to reports received by human-rights activists.

— President Barack Obama warned Syria’s government Monday that it would be “totally unacceptable” for it to use chemical weapons against its own people and vowed to hold accountable anyone who did, as U.S. intelligence officials picked up signs that such arms might be deployed in the ongoing insurgency.

Meanwhile in Damascus,fighting between rebels and government forces raged near the Syrian capital Monday, forcing an inbound commercial jet to turn back while the U.N. said it was withdrawing staff because of deteriorating security conditions.

The White House said that some recent actions by the government of President Bashar Assad were indicators that Syrian forces were preparing to use such weapons, following earlier reports that intelligence agencies had noticed signs of activity at chemical weapons sites. Obama’s spokesman said the administration had “an increased concern” of possible use of chemical weapons.

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Uprising in Syria

In a speech later in the day that echoed earlier comments by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama sternly asserted again that he would punish Syria for using chemical weapons, although he did not say how. The administration has been preparing contingency plans that include the dispatch of tens of thousands of troops to secure such weapons, although it is not clear whether Obama would go that far.

“Today I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command: The world is watching,” Obama said in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington. “The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. If you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable.”

During an earlier briefing at the White House, Jay Carney, the president’s press secretary, hinted at possible military action in response, although he declined to specify what options Obama would consider.

“We think it is important to prepare for all scenarios,” Carney said. “Contingency planning is the responsible thing to do.”

The president’s statements on Syria amplified similar warnings issued by Clinton earlier in the day in Prague, the Czech capital, where she was stopping on her way to meetings in Brussels.

“This is a red line for the United States,” Clinton said, using the same language that the White House would use later. “I am not going to telegraph in any specifics what we would do in the event of credible evidence that the Assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people. But suffice it to say we are certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur.”

There have been signs in recent days of heightened activity at some of Syria’s chemical weapons sites, according to U.S. and Israeli officials familiar with intelligence reports. Clinton did not confirm the intelligence reports or say what sort of activity was occurring.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry, in a swift response, said the government “would not use chemical weapons, if it had them, against its own people under any circumstances.” The statement was reported on Syrian state television and on the Lebanese channel LBC.

The warning from the White House came as the spokesman for Syria’s foreign ministry, Jihad Makdissi, was reported by the Hezbollah-run television station, Al Manar, as having been fired, although Lebanese news websites reported the departure as a defection. Makdissi, who was thought to be in Europe on Monday, was one of the highest ranking Christians to defect, and his polished persona and fluent English had long made him one of the most cosmopolitan faces of the government.

In recent months he has not taken phone calls and has not made public statements, leading some to speculate that he had either fallen out of favor or had doubts about the regime.

Makdissi had been one of the most accessible Syrian officials for foreign journalists. Al Manar reported that he was fired for making statements that did not reflect the government’s point of view, though it was unclear what those statements might have been.

The crisis has been worsening in Syria, where about 40,000 people have been killed in 20 months of conflict. On Monday, the U.N. regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Radhouane Nouicer, said it is pulling nonessential international staff out of the country because of the security situation.

Up to one quarter of the 100 international staff working for several U.N. agencies could leave by week’s end. There are about 900 more local staff working for the U.N. in Syria, officials said.

U.N. teams are also stopping most staff trips outside Damascus.

In another sign of deteriorating security, an Egyptian commercial jet aborted a trip to Damascus in mid-flight because of violence near the airport. The EgyptAir flight from Cairo rerouted about 30 minutes after takeoff because Egyptian officials received word from their counterparts in Damascus that the area near the airport was not safe, Egyptian airport officials said.

EgyptAir canceled all further flights to Syria for Monday and today and will decide later whether to resume flights later in the week, the officials said.

EgyptAir had just resumed flights after a three-day suspension because of violence near the airport.

The Britain-based opposition activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the clashes were within two miles of the airport, which lies about 15 miles southeast of the city center. The state news service reported clashes in an area about nine miles from the airport. It said nothing about flight cancellations.

Government warplanes launched airstrikes in rebel held towns near the border with Turkey, including Ras al-Ayn. The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group, said at least 10 people had been killed there.

Clinton, who made her comments after meeting with Karel Schwarzenberg, the foreign minister of the Czech Republic, indicated that they had discussed the situation in Syria, including the potential chemical weapons threat.

Schwarzenberg described the situation in Syria as “rather chaotic” and “highly dangerous.” He said Czech troops who specialize in the detection of chemical weapons and decontamination were in Jordan training with forces there.

A U.S. task force has been deployed to Jordan and has been helping the Jordanians deal with an escalating humanitarian crisis centered on Syria, including an exodus of more than 200,000 refugees from Syria to Jordan. The force is also planning a response, if necessary, to a chemical weapons threat.

Clinton stopped in Prague on her way to Brussels for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers. A major topic of the NATO meeting is a Turkish request that the alliance deploy Patriot anti-missile batteries in Turkey. The Turkish government is concerned about Syria’s ballistic missiles, which could carry chemical weapons, and it wants NATO to guard as many as 10 sites inside Turkey.

After talks in Istanbul, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the deployment of NATO antiaircraft missiles along the Turkish border could make the conflict worse.

The two countries are firmly enmeshed in Syria’s conflict, on opposite sides. Russia continues to back Assad, thrice protecting his regime from censure by the U.N. Security Council. Turkey has called for Assad’s ouster, and its southern border with Turkey has become a key supply line for rebel forces.

But leaders of the two countries said they would work together more intensively on the Syrian problem.

Information for this article was contributed by Peter Baker, Michael R. Gordon, Sebnem Arsu and Anne Barnard of The New York Times; and by Ben Hubbard, John Heilprin, Albert Aji, Aya Batrawy, Bradley Klapper, Pauline Jelinek, Kimberly Dozier, Josef Federman Matthew Lee, Julie Pace, Lolita C. Baldor and Vladimir Isachenkov of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/04/2012

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