In November vorig jaar waarschuwde de Israëlische inlichtingendienst de Westerse machten over activiteiten rond Syrië’s chemische wapens: wat daarna volgde, volgens officiële bronnen, was een opmerkelijke demonstratie van internationale samenwerking over een burgeroorlog waarbij de Verenigde Staten, de Arabische staten, Rusland en China het bijna nooit eens waren over een gezamenlijke beleid… tot nu toe.
WASHINGTON — In the last days of November, Israel’s top military commanders called the Pentagon to discuss troubling intelligence that was showing up on satellite imagery: Syrian troops appeared to be mixing chemicals at two storage sites, probably the deadly nerve gas sarin, and filling dozens of 500-pounds bombs that could be loaded on airplanes.
Within hours President Obama was notified, and the alarm grew over the weekend, as the munitions were loaded onto vehicles near Syrian air bases. In briefings, administration officials were told that if Syria’s increasingly desperate president, Bashar al-Assad, ordered the weapons to be used, they could be airborne in less than two hours — too fast for the United States to act, in all likelihood.
What followed next, officials said, was a remarkable show of international cooperation over a civil war in which the United States, Arab states, Russia and China have almost never agreed on a common course of action. … [Bron: NYTimes]
Lees ook ons artikel van 6 december ll.: https://fjo.be/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=631&Itemid=85
NY Times – Foto: IDF soldaten aan de Israël-Syrische grens (Wiki commons)