ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, July 17, (Agencies): The White House warned the Syrian government on Tuesday that it would be held accountable for safeguarding any chemical weapons it possessed.
The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad appears to be quietly shifting some chemical weapons from storage sites, Western and Israeli officials have said, but it is not clear whether the operation is merely a security precaution amid Syria’s escalating internal conflict, or something more.
“There are certain responsibilities that go along with the handling and storage and security of those chemical weapons,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters when asked whether there was any US intelligence that backed up news reports on the prospects for Syria resorting to chemical weapons against its opponents.

“We believe that the individuals who are responsible for living up to those challenges should do so and will be held accountable for doing so,” he said aboard Air Force One as President Barack Obama headed for Texas.

Earnest said he could not discuss specific intelligence on Syria’s chemical weapons. But he said Obama and other world leaders were concerned overall about “inhumane brutality” by the Syrian government against its own people.

Some analysts say Assad’s government may be shifting some of its stockpile to keep the weapons from capture by an expanding insurgency, and to deprive Syria’s Western foes of an excuse for intervention on the grounds of securing dangerous material gone astray.

The Syrian government denies carrying out the operation. Syria’s undeclared stockpile — believed to be the largest of its kind in the Middle East — reportedly includes sarin nerve agent, mustard gas and cyanide.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will use chemical weapons against opposition forces and may have already deployed them, Nawaf Fares, the first Syrian ambassador to defect, told the BBC on Monday.
Fares, the most prominent politician to defect since the uprising against Assad began, insisted that the president’s days were numbered but warned he would be prepared “to eradicate the entire Syrian people” to remain in power.

When asked by the BBC’s Frank Gardner whether that would mean the use of chemical weapons, Fares said: “I am convinced that if Bashar al-Assad’s regime is further cornered by the people — he would use such weapons.”

“There is information, unconfirmed information, that chemical weapons have been used in Homs,” the former ambassador to Iraq added.

Syria has a large stock of chemical weapons and neighbouring countries are increasingly concerned about what will happen to them if the regime topples.

Fares said this outcome was now “inevitable”.

“It is absolutely sure that this government will fall in a short time,” he told the BBC from his refuge in Qatar. “We wish for this time to be short so that more sacrifices are reduced.”

Fares, who announced his defection on July 11, was widely seen as a regime hardliner and his decision to break ranks has triggered suspicion among activists.

Some dissidents say Fares has been likely groomed by the West to play a role in a transitional government while others have spoken about his “criminal” past.

Fares, who has served as governor in several Syrian provinces and has held senior security and Baath party posts, hails from the prominent Oqaydat Sunni tribe in eastern Syria, which also has members in Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

A former policeman, Fares had close ties to the dreaded intelligence services before becoming governor and later Syria’s first ambassador to Iraq following a 30-year rupture in ties between the two neighbours.
Syria’s military deployed armoured vehicles near central Damascus on Monday as troops battled rebels around the capital in what activists said could be a turning point in the 16-month uprising.

Fares said the spread of violence to the capital proved that the “expansion and the power of the revolution was increasing day-by-day.”

Golan
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has moved army forces from the Golan Heights area next to Israel toward Damascus and other internal conflict zones, the Israeli army intelligence chief said on Tuesday.
As fighting rages between Assad’s forces and rebels trying to oust his government, he has moved troops from the Syrian side of the disengagement line that divides the Golan Heights between Syria and Israeli-held territory, he said.

“Assad has removed many of his forces that were in the Golan Heights to the areas of (internal) conflict,” Major General Aviv Kochavi told MPs.

“He’s not afraid of Israel at this point, but mainly wants to augment his forces around Damascus,” Kochavi said in remarks relayed by a Knesset spokesman.
Fighting between Assad’s forces and rebels trying to oust his government has raged in Damascus since

Sunday, with some activists saying it marked a “turning point” in the 16-month revolt against the regime.
Syria remains formally at war with Israel, which captured part of the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move which the international community does not recognise.
But Kochavi said “the probability of a conflict between Israel and Syria as a last resort for Assad is low.”
He warned that “radical Islam” was gaining ground in Syria, saying the country was undergoing a process of “Iraqisation,” with militant and tribal factions controlling different sectors of the country.
“We can see an ongoing flow of al-Qaeda and global jihad activists into Syria,” he said.

Shot
The rebel Free Syrian Army said it shot down on Tuesday a helicopter gunship in Damascus, scene of violent battles between army and rebel forces.
“Yes, we have shot down a helicopter over the district of Qaboon,” the FSA’s Joint Command spokesman told AFP via Skype, without elaborating.
For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “according to several witnesses, a helicopter fell after being hit by several rebel shots.”
“After pounding the districts of Qaboon, Barzeh and Harasta, the helicopter’s fuel tank was hit by a rocket,” an activist who identified himself as Abu Omar said, adding that “the helicopter then fell near Qaboon.”
But another Qaboon-based activist who identified himself as Omar told AFP “the FSA has engaged in fighting against regime troops, but there is no foundation to reports of a helicopter being shot down.”
General
A Syrian general and several soldiers crossed into Turkey on Monday, a Turkish diplomat told AFP, bringing the number of defections by generals from Bashar al-Assad’s embattled regime to at least 18.
Turkey has become home to dozens of defectors who have crossed the border and formed the Free Syrian Army in opposition to Assad’s regime.
The latest defection brings to 18 the number of generals who have fled into Turkey since the conflict in Syria erupted in March last year.
The diplomat, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that almost 42,700 Syrian refugees are now living in camps near the border with Syria.
“We are seeing an increase in the number of Syrians arriving in Turkey, whether they are civilians or military.”
Battle
Rebels declared the battle to “liberate” Damascus has begun as heavy fighting raged across the city on Tuesday and Russia said an agreement is possible for a UN resolution on the Syria crisis.
The proclamation by the Free Syrian Army (FSA) came as UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said the 16-month crisis now increasingly described as a civil war was at a “critical time.”
Heavy machinegun fire was reported in Damascus’s Sabaa Bahrat Square, where President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has staged rallies to counter anti-regime protests that erupted in March 2011.
Tanks and helicopter gunships were deployed in the Qaboon neighbourhood, while battles were fought in Al-Midan and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Eight people, all but one civilians, were killed in Damascus on Tuesday, the Britain-based watchdog said.
As the clashes inched closer to the regime’s nerve centre, FSA spokesman Colonel Kassem Saadeddine said “victory is nigh” and that the fight would go on until all Damascus was conquered.
“We have transferred the battle from Damascus province to the capital. We have a clear plan to control the whole of Damascus. We only have light weapons, but it’s enough.”
“Expect surprises,” Saadeddine added, without elaborating.
Fighting between Assad’s forces and the FSA has raged in Damascus since Sunday, with the rebels announcing a full-scale offensive dubbed “the Damascus volcano and earthquakes of Syria.”
An activist in the capital told AFP that FSA fighters had blocked an attempt by troops to storm Qaboon.
“The army tried to raid the neighbourhood yesterday but the FSA stopped them,” said the activist, who calls himself Omar.
Backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, the army pounded the neighbourhood with mortar and heavy machinegun fire, he said.
An activist who said he was in Al-Midan said the army was shelling the neighbourhood “hysterically.”
“The collapsing regime has gone mad,” the man calling himself Abu Musab said via Skype.
“The army has tried to storm the district, but the Free Syrian Army has stopped them. So they have intensified their shelling. They are shelling everything,” he said, adding that Ghazwat Badr mosque had been destroyed.
AFP could not independently verify the accounts.
Witnesses also reported heavy machinegun fire in Sabaa Bahrat Square in central Damascus, as well as in Baghdad Street nearby.
The regime vowed on Monday not to surrender the capital.
“You will never get Damascus,” read the headline in Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the regime.
Support
In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Annan he would “do everything” to support the former UN chief’s plan to end the conflict.
“We will do everything that depends on us to support your efforts,” Putin told Annan at the Kremlin.
Annan told Putin “the Syrian crisis is at a critical time” before their meeting was closed to the media.
Speaking to reporters later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he saw “no reason why we cannot also agree at the UN Security Council. We are ready for this.”
Annan added: “The Council, I expect, will be sending out a message that the killings must stop and that the situation on the ground is unacceptable.”
Annan’s Moscow meetings came one day before Western powers plan to hold a vote on a UN resolution that threatens sanctions against the Damascus regime.
The council must also vote to decide on renewing the 300-strong UN Supervision Mission in Syria, deployed to monitor an April 12 ceasefire Assad agreed with Annan.
While Annan is in Moscow, UN chief Ban Ki-moon is due in Beijing on Tuesday, also on a mission to get support for tougher action on Syria.
Russia and China have twice blocked resolutions against Syria at the Security Council, which remains divided over Western calls to pile new sanctions on Damascus.
On a visit to Syria’s neighbour Jordan, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the crisis is too unpredictable to rule out “any option,” insisting on the need for a Chapter VII resolution.
Hague urged Russia and China to “take greater note of the scale of the bloodshed and the need to bring it to an end and the desperate situation of the sort of people that we met at the Syrian border today.”
The Observatory said at least 35 people were killed across Syria on Tuesday, 16 of them civilians, adding to its toll of more than 17,000 people dead since the uprising began.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has said that Syria is in a state of all-out civil war and that all sides must respect humanitarian law or risk war crimes prosecutions.