US concerned about Syrian chemical arms, missiles

The United States is concerned about the fate of Syria's suspected stocks of chemical weapons and tens of thousands of shoulder-fired missiles if the regime collapses, US officials said Wednesday.

One official said Washington is in the meantime urging Syria's neighbors to be on the "lookout" to ensure no such weapons cross their borders as the uprising against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad becomes increasingly violent.

"Syria has got some similarities (with Libya) but a much more difficult situation," Thomas Countryman, assistant secretary of state for international security and non-proliferation, told reporters.

Countryman, whose bureau is also in charge of proliferation issues in Libya, said Libya's chemical weapons stockpile is now secure.

"We have long been aware of Syria's chemical weapons program. It is one of the few countries in the world that has not signed the chemical weapons convention," said Countryman.

But neither he nor Rose Gottemoeller, acting under secretary of state for arms control and international security, would say how many chemical weapons they believe Syria has or where they are located.

"We have ideas as to quantity. We have ideas as to where they are," Gottemoeller said without elaborating.

A US military officer, when asked by AFP about suspected stocks of both chemical and biological weapons, said: "That's what we're monitoring, that's what we're focused on right now."

There was no sign that the Assad regime had lost control of the stockpiles or was making any preparations to use them, he added.

Countryman outlined some of the concerns about what would happen should the Assad regime fall.

"When you get to a change of regime in Syria... it matters a great deal what are the conditions, whether it is chaotic or a fairly orderly transfer," he said.

But Countryman said: "We would certainly be prepared to work with any successor government to help them secure, control those weapons with the goal of destroying them."

Countryman said the United States also suspected Syria possessed "tens of thousands" of portable shoulder-fired missiles which could target civilian aircraft if they fell into "terrorist hands."

"Whether it's more or less, we're not certain," he said, referring to the so-called Man Portable Air Defense Systems, or MANPADS.

Countryman recalled that an estimated 20,000 such missiles existed in Libya and it was impossible to account for all of them.

"At this point, we do wish simply to have the neighbors of Syria do some of the same prudential planning that the neighbors of Libya are doing," he said.

As Syria's neighbors monitor refugees and weapons smuggling, so too they should "be on the lookout as well and be aware that a diffusion of these chemical weapons or MANPADS can be a threat to their security," he said.

The United States also believes that Russia and Iran are shipping conventional weapons to the Assad regime to help crush pro-democracy protests, State Department officials told reporters.

Countryman said Iran is supplying "conventional weapons" to Syria, where activists say more than 6,000 people have been killed since a crackdown began in March.

"Iran is resupplying Syria just as it has supplied Syria for some time," he said without saying how many or what kind of weapons were being delivered.

Countryman also said Russia was delivering weapons to Syria that can be used against protesters.

"We don't believe that the Russian shipment of weapons to Syria is in the interests of finding a peaceful resolution," he said.

Last month the State Department pressed Moscow on a reported deal to sell Syria fighter jets, something Washington described as "quite concerning."