Friday, November 01, 2013

Is Syria Lying?: Blog 8

The United Nations inspectors have almost completed their goal. They have reached all but two chemical weapons arsenals. The two arsenals they have not visited are in war zones. Now the arsenals can be destroyed. The United States wants to disarm Syria, by mid-2014, however Syria has claimed they do not want to hand over chemical weapons to the U.S.. Officials stated that destroying mixing and filling equipment should be fairly easy, but the destroying of warheads and bombs is a concern. Russia has offered a lending hand to Syria in destroying the chemical weapons. Syria has disclosed that they have 41 chemical weapons facilities, at the 23 arsenals. However, Syria did not disclose any sites where the chemical weapons were tested. The United Nations inspectors can't visit the other two arsenals until there is a cease in fire, or until it is completely safe.

It is a good thing that Syria has reported their chemical weapons, assuming they reported them all. It's also good that the inspectors have made it to most of the chemical weapons arsenals, however the report did not say what size, or what the type of the two arsenals that are left. These last 2 arsenals could be largest, or they could be the smallest. The size of these chemical weapon arsenals seems to be quite hidden from the public. The bad of this situation is that Syria has claimed they want to end the chemical warfare, but does not want to give the chemical weapons to anyone but Russia. Previously in the chemical confusion when tensions where high, Russia posed sides with Syria against the U.S., France, and the United Kingdom. This means Syria could just be passing off the weapons to Russia in alliance. Hopefully, these weapons will be truly destroyed, but only time will tell. This could only be a snowflake to a snowball affect on its way for war.

Brianna Hunt
Nov. 1, 2013.
3:00 pm


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