Could we try to enforce the existing Syria chemical weapons disarmament treaty before we try to pretend that Iran will agree to nuclear disarmament?
The U.N. disarmament chief reported the discovery of an undeclared chemical warfare agent at a Syrian site to a Security Council meeting Thursday where the United States and its Western allies clashed with Russia over international findings that Syria has used chemical weapons.
Izumi Nakamitsu didn’t name the agent detected in samples by the international chemical weapons watchdog, but said its presence “inside storage containers of large volume at a previously declared chemical weapons facility may imply undeclared production activities.”
If we go this route again, Assad will not turn over all his chemical weapons. Assad won't provide sufficient proof that he has given them all up even as he claims he has. And soon Westerners will assume inspections are for the purpose of America proving that Assad has chemical weapons rather than Assad proving he has given them all up.
Sadly, nobody even cares and some can't even bear to say that Assad violated the chemical weapons deal, and has not in fact disarmed.
Also, Russia is protecting Assad (from the first story link):
Russia’s deputy ambassador Dmitry Polyansky reiterated Moscow's attack on the [Organization for the Protection of Chemical Weapons] and its investigators, accusing them of factual and technical errors and acting under pressure from Western nations whose intention is “to provoke Damascus to take drastic steps and thus achieve their own political objectives.”
Yeah, that's a shock.
The Islamic Republic of Iran made multiple attempts in 2020 to obtain technology for its weapons of mass destruction program and has not stopped its drive to develop atomic weapons, intelligence agencies from the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany recently reported.
And here we are. Have a super sparkly day.
