If this does indeed happen, things are going to get very interesting in the Middle East. After a very brief lull, tensions are escalating once again in the region:
The Syrian military is prepared to use chemical weapons against its own people and is awaiting final orders from Syrian president Bashar Assad, NBC News reported Wednesday, citing US officials.The officials told NBC News that "the army had loaded precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, onto aerial bombs that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens of fighter-bombers."
The Atlantic reported Monday that Israel asked Jordan on a number of occasions for "permission" to bomb Syrian chemical weapons sites, citing intelligence sources in both countries.
According to the report, Jordan turned down requests a number of times in the past two months, saying "the time was not right." Jordan is reportedly wary of allowing Israel to bomb the sites in Syria, fearing a military response on Jordanian territory. "A number of sites are not far from the border," the report quoted a foreign source as saying.
The military has loaded the precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, into aerial bombs that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens of fighter-bombers, the officials told the American network.
...the officials said, the nerve agents were locked and loaded inside the bombs.
But U.S. officials said this week that the government had ordered its Chemical Weapons Corps to "be prepared," which Washington interpreted as a directive to begin bringing together the components needed to weaponize Syria's chemical stockpiles.
Sarin is an extraordinarily lethal agent. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's forces killed 5,000 Kurds with a single sarin attack on Halabja in 1988.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel is closely monitoring Syria’s potential use of chemical weapons.
“Together with the international community, we are closely monitoring developments in Syria regarding its stores of chemical weapons,” said Netanyahu. “I heard President Obama's important remarks on this issue and we are of the same mind, that such weapons must not be used and must not reach terrorist elements.”
Israel has expressed concern that the chemical weapons arsenal maintained in Syria will indeed end up in the wrong hands – specifically, the hands of Hizbullah or other terrorists who aim to annihilate the Jewish State.
Joel Rosenberg weighs in:
A terrible darkness is settling over the Middle East, and with each day that passes the likelihood of a major war in the Middle East in 2013 that could involve Israel, Iran and Syria appears to grow. The ayatollahs in Iran are continuing to pursue nuclear weapons. They’re preaching that the End of Days has come and that the so-called Islamic messiah known as the Twelfth Imam will be revealed soon to rule the Earth.
Neither the U.S. nor the rest of the world seems willing to take decisive action to neutralize the threat. Israel is actively preparing to launch a preemptive military strike. But the world is pressuring Jerusalem not to strike. And Israeli leaders are also weighing the blowback they would receive once such a war began.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah terror group in southern Lebanon has tens of thousands of missiles pointed at the Jewish State. A radical Islamic dictator is rising in Egypt. Jihadists have been firing rockets and mortars at Israel from the Sinai Desert. Hamas forces in Gaza just fired more than 1,500 rockets and missiles at Israel and are being resupplied by Iran.
That said, senior Israeli intelligence sources are now saying the border with Syria could become “the hottest border in Israel” in 2013. We’re currently witnessing the slaughter of more than 40,000 innocent civilians by the bloodthirsty regime in Damascus. Israeli and Western intelligence agencies increasingly fear the Assad regime will use of weapons of mass destruction against Israel, and/or against their own people, and/or the Assad regime will fall and jihadist forces will gain control of Syria’s stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and then focus on a War of Annihilation against Israel.
What if all Hell breaks loose? What if these dark trends spin out of control? What would it look like if Israel does, in fact, launch a massive preemptive military strike against Iran? What would the retaliation look like if Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas fire back with tens of thousands of missiles raining down on Israel? And is it possible that such a horrific war could inadvertently set into motion End Times Bible prophecies, such as the prophecies in Isaiah and Jeremiah that indicate the city of Damascus will one day be utterly and completely wiped off the face of the earth?
United Nations forces based inside Syria to monitor a longtime ceasefire between Syria and Israel will bring in armor to reinforce their security because of a threat posed by an influx of Syrian rebels, the UN peacekeeping chief said.
The UN force deployed in the area after the 1973 Middle Eastwar, between Syria and Israel.
"The situation in Syria sparked a cascade of insecurity which has had consequences highlighted by the presence of armed groups belonging to the Syrian opposition in the disengagement zones… There are people being trained that appear a lot like (hardline Muslim) Salafists," he said.
Meanwhile:
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