Israel Says Skeptical of Russia Chemical Weapons Plan
As Washington and Moscow discuss a Russian plan to rid Syria of chemical weapons, an Israeli official said Thursday that the existing Chemical Weapons Convention has not been a regional success.
The 20-year-old convention, which has been proposed as the tool for verifying Syrian compliance, has failed to attract the multilateral support that would allow it to work, Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said, adding that Israel signed in 1993 but has never ratified it.
"Unfortunately, while Israel signed the Convention, other countries in the Middle East, including those that have used chemical weapons recently or in the past, or are believed to be working to improve their chemical capabilities, have failed to follow suit and have indicated that their position would remain unchanged even if Israel ratifies the Convention," Palmor said.
"Some of these states don't recognize Israel's right to exist and blatantly call to annihilate it," Palmor said.
"The chemical weapons threat against Israel and its civilian population is neither theoretical nor distant," he told local daily Haaretz.
"Terror organizations, acting as proxies for certain regional states, similarly pose a chemical weapons threat. These threats cannot be ignored by Israel, in the assessment of possible ratification of the Convention."
Syria, one of five countries not to have signed the global treaty, said on Tuesday it had accepted the Russian proposal, as France kept up the pressure with a draft U.N. resolution threatening force if the regime failed to comply.
Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime is accused of using chemical arms in an August 21 attack that killed hundreds of people on the outskirts of Damascus.
The convention initially aimed to eliminate all chemical weapons by 2007.
Israel and Myanmar have signed the convention but not ratified it, while Angola, Egypt, North Korea, South Sudan and Syria have done neither.
Israel's northern neighbor Lebanon has ratified, as has its arch-foe Iran.
The CWC has four main provisions, the destruction of all chemical weapons under strict verification, monitoring of the chemical industry to prevent arms development, helping protect nations against chemical threats and boosting global cooperation to strengthen implementation.
Source: Agence France Presse
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