Israel's defense minister Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday that Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons against civilians since the U.S.-Russia sponsored "cessation of hostilities" began. "The Syrians used military grade chemical weapons and lately have been using materials, chlorine, against civilians, including in these very days, after the supposed ceasefire, dropping barrels of chlorine on civilians," Yaalon said at a conference near Tel Aviv.
It was partly the 2013 Israeli assessment confirming Assad had used chemical weapons that compelled the Obama administration to order strikes against Assad in the late summer of 2013. Obama decided against military operations and opted instead to partner with Russia to strip the Syrian regime of its unconventional arsenal. It has become clear since the U.S.-Russia agreement that Assad retained the ability to use chemical weapons. Since Moscow escalated its military presence in September, the Assad regime has deployed its chemical weapons under what is effectively a Russian protective umbrella.
However, the cessation of hostilities has also provided Assad and company with political cover. Pro-Assad sources are claiming that Assad's forces areadvancing, even as the administration says there are no "significant" violations of the truce.
As I argued earlier this week, "the paradox at the heart of the truce is that it was supposed to facilitate humanitarian assistance. It was supposed to bring some relief to those whom Assad's forces, Hezbollah, Iran, and Russia have been killing. But it won't bring them relief; it will just make them more vulnerable by disarming the only people who are protecting them." If the Israeli reports are accurate, it seems the truce has made them more vulnerable to Assad's chemical weapons arsenal as well.
In time, war crimes charges for actions taken in the Syrian conflict will likely be brought not only against Assad and his key officials, but also against the Iranian regime, senior commanders of its Islamic Revolutionary Guards, as well as Russian officials, including Russian president Vladimir Putin as well as the foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. The White House should be ashamed that it has repeatedly provided political and diplomatic cover —the chemical weapons agreement that didn't strip Assad of chemical weapons, the truce that allowed Assad and allies to advance—to all of these parties.