Syrian ex-commander: Assad still has 3,000 tons of chemical weapons

Brigadier General Zaher al-Saket, former head of chemical warfare, 5th division, said that the regime still has 3,000 tons of chemical weapons despite UN efforts to destroy the country's chemical substances.

The regime has a huge chemical weapons stockpile, despite UN efforts to eliminate the chemical weapons in the war-torn country, he said in an interview with Turkey's Yeni Şafak newspaper. “Only one-third of chemical substances was destroyed during the efforts led by by the United Nations Security Council and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)."

The military official said Al-Assad regime has bought basic raw materials to make chemical weapons from four countries including Russia, Iran, Germany and North Korea. “But some weapons came from Russia, while others are being manufactured in Syria. Iranian and Russian experts are working with Syrian officers in a facility and storage facility in the Mazzeh military export," he disclosed.

According to al-Saket, there are five arsenals where the warheads, loaded with chemical weapons, have been storaged in Qalamoun Mountains, the city of Hama, a remote desert, a northern village of Taqsees and Aleppo. “They are kept in heavily-fortified places. I know exactly where they are. But if I divulge the exact locations, they will relocate all substances immediately."

The UN has only removed 13 facilities, but 45 still have secretly manufactured chemical substances, al-Saket said. “In these facilities, they manufacture incubators for the toxic substances, which will be loaded onto the warheads, carried by war planes," he said in a video posted by the Middle East Media research Institute TV Monitor Project (MEMRI). “When these warheads hit the ground, they release a toxic cloud."

Al-Saket said the regime's facilities are loaded with the three types of chemical weapons -- harrassing chemical agents, incapacitating agents and lethal agents. “Since 2013, the Syrian regime has resorted to using the three types of weapons in several settlements besides the use of vaccuum bombs to target civilians."

“I am increasingly afraid that they will use agents more powerful than sarin. They have VX gas and mustard gas, also knows as iprit."

A UN report has alleged the Assad regime used chemical weapons in as many as 175 attacks that hit civilian settlements. In 2014, UN Secretay General Ban Ki-moon deemed the launch of chemical attack a 'war crime.' His statement came after the Assad regime had been accused of using sarin nerve gas in the east of Damascus.

Al-Saket said the regime's claim that the rebel groups have used chemical weapons is a proof that shows the regime actually has used them. “The rebels do not have any means to use these weapons," he was quoted by MEMRI.

Al-Saket said he defected from the regime's forces because he refused to obey an order to use chemical substances. “In the Hamoud Horan battle in Busra al-Harir, I was given an order to launch toxic agents in the trenches and caves to which the Free Syrian Army was heading. But I replaced these substances with liquid bleach which I diluted with water and launched into trenches," he elaborated. “I buried these substance with my own hands. So my commander sent me to prison."

The ex-commander also touched on the regime's chemical attacks. “The regime used sarin gas three times in Al-Utaybah region, near Damascus international airport. The next time chemical weapons were used was in Khan al-Assal. They used lethal agents as the Free Syrian Army managed to reach the military academy, which is the main stronghold of the regime," he explained.

He also disclosed that the secret service, al-Muhaberat, has delivered chemical substances to Daesh in the province of Deir- al-Zor, the Tabqa military airport and the city of Homs. “Thet have made three deliveries. The last delivery was in Umm al-uyn region near Aleppo in July this year," he added.

The destruction of Syrian chemical weapons is based on several international agreements with Syria which determined an initial destruction deadline of 30 June 2014. UN Resolution 2118 has imposed on Syria a timelime and responsibilities for the destruction of its chemical weapons and weapons production facilities.

The agreements emerged at a time when the US and France headed a coalition of countries on the verge of carrying out airstrikes on Syria in reprisal for the regime's chmeical gas attack on Ghouta in August 2013.

On 23 June 2014, the last chemical weapons were shipped out of Syria for destruction as part of the agreement reached with the Damascus regime.