WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Monday that it is worried that Syria’s embattled government may be preparing to use chemical weapons against the opposition and warned that doing so “would cross a red line for the United States” and prompt American action.
The White House said that some recent actions by the government of President Bashar al-Assad were indicators that such weapons could be deployed soon, following earlier reports that intelligence agencies had noticed signs of activity at chemical weapons sites.
“We have an increased concern about the possibility of the regime taking the desperate act of using its chemical weapons,” said Jay Carney, the White House press secretary. He said such a move “would cross a red line for the United States. The Assad regime must know that the world is watching and that they will be held accountable by the United States and the international community if they use chemical weapons or fail to secure them.”
Mr. Carney hinted at possible military action in response, although he declined to specify what options President Obama would consider. “We think it is important to prepare for all scenarios,” Mr. Carney said. “Contingency planning is the responsible thing to do.”
The White House statements on Syria echoed and amplified similar warnings issued by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton earlier in the day in Prague, the Czech capital, where she was stopping on her way to meetings in Brussels.
“This is a red line for the United States,” Mrs. Clinton said, using the same language that the White House later would use. “I am not going to telegraph in any specifics what we would do in the event of credible evidence that the Assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people. But suffice it to say we are certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur.”
There have been signs in recent days of heightened activity at some of Syria’s chemical weapons sites, according to American and Israeli officials familiar with intelligence reports. Mrs. Clinton did not confirm the intelligence reports or say what sort of activity was occurring.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry, in a swift response, said the government “would not use chemical weapons, if it had them, against its own people under any circumstances.” The statement was reported on Syrian state television and on the Lebanese channel LBC.
The warning from the White House came as the spokesman for Syria’s foreign ministry, Jihad Makdissi, was reported by the Hezbollah-run television station, Al Manar, as having been fired, although Lebanese news Web sites reported the departure as a defection. Mr. Makdissi, who was thought to be in Europe on Monday, was one of the highest ranking Christians to defect, and his polished persona and fluent English had long made him one of the most cosmopolitan faces of the government.
In recent months he had not taken phone calls and had not made public statements, leading some to speculate that he had either fallen out of favor or had doubts about the regime.
Mr. Maqdissi had been one of the most accessible Syrian officials for foreign journalists. Al Manar reported that he was fired for making statements that did not reflect the government’s point of view, though it was unclear what those statements might have been.
The crisis has been worsening in Syria, where about 40,000 people have been killed in 20 months of conflict. On Monday, the United Nations regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria, Radhouane Nouicer, said that they were pulling nonessential international staff out of the country because of the security situation, The Associated Press reported.
Mrs. Clinton, who made her comments after meeting with Karel Schwarzenberg, the foreign minister of the Czech Republic, indicated that they had discussed the situation in Syria, including the potential chemical weapons threat.
Mr. Schwarzenberg described the situation in Syria as “rather chaotic” and “highly dangerous.” He said that Czech troops who specialize in the detection of chemical weapons and decontamination were in Jordan training with forces there.
An American task force has been deployed to Jordan and has been helping the Jordanians deal with an escalating humanitarian crisis centered on Syria, including an exodus of more than 200,000 refugees from Syria to Jordan. The force is also planning how to respond, if necessary, to a chemical weapons threat.
Mrs. Clinton stopped in Prague on her way to Brussels for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers. A major topic of the NATO meeting is a Turkish request that the alliance deploy Patriot antimissile batteries in Turkey. The Turkish government is concerned about Syria’s ballistic missiles, which could carry chemical weapons, and it wants NATO to guard as many as 10 sites inside Turkey.
Clinton Warns Syria Against Using Chemical Weapons
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Clinton Warns Syria Against Using Chemical Weapons
