Obama warns Assad over chemical weapons

US President Barack Obama warns the Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad not to use either chemical or biological weapons. Obama told the reporters at the Whitehouse that a situation can not be raised where chemical or biological weapons are being fallen into the hands of the wrong people. 

“We have been very clear to the Assasd regime—but also to other players on the ground—that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized…  “That would change my calculus; that would change my equation.”  Obama told reporter at White House (CNN).Obama further added that U.S. officials are monitoring the situation “very carefully” and have put together a number of contingency plans.

The Syrian regime "probably has the largest and most advanced chemical warfare program in the Arab world," Michael Eisenstadt, director of the military and security studies program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told CNN last month.

It includes "thousands of tube and rocket artillery rounds filled with mustard-type blister agents, thousands of bombs filled with the nerve agents sarin and possibly VX, and binary-type and cluster CW warheads filled with nerve agents for all its major missile systems.

"Its CW infrastructure is believed to include several production facilities and numerous storage sites, mostly dispersed throughout the western half of the country," Eisenstadt said.

"We have communicated in no uncertain terms with every player in the region that that's a red line for us and that there would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movement on the chemical weapons front or the use of chemical weapons."

Obama's remarks appeared to ratchet up his stance on the matter. Last month, talking about Syrian forces, he told a VFW convention, "They will be held accountable by the international community and the United States should they make the tragic mistake of using those weapons."

Source CNN..