An Important Consideration With Regard to the Current UN's Chemical Weapons Disarmament in Syria.

I begin my short note with a simple question as follows. Can we trust Asad's regime, Iran and Hezbollah?
If the answer to this question is "yes"; then, we should trust Bashar Asad, when he, for example, claims that his security forces are killing the terrorists; then we should remove all the economic and political sanctions on Iran, because as Iran itself claims its nuclear activity has peaceful nature; then, we should also remove Hezbollah from the list of international terrorist organizations.

I'm pretty sure that most of us don't trust Bashar Asad, or Iran, or Hezbollah. This is a logical statement, based on many reasons, which is out of the scope of this short note. In this respect, we face some other questions with regard to the recent UN's chemical weapons disarmament in Syria. These questions are as follows.

1- Has the Syrian authority handed over the list of its entire chemical weapons and chemical storages to the UN?

2- Does Asad's regime hand over some of its chemical weapons to Hezbollah?

3- Does Asad's regime move some of its chemical weapons to Iran through Iraq or by Iranian airplanes, which are flying between Tehran and Damascus on daily bases?

Undoubtedly, all these possibilities are worrisome.These are the important issues that the UN chemical inspectors cannot control or prevent.  However, in order to avoid or at least decrease these threatening possibilities, the United Nation, first, should establish a ceasefire between Asad's regime and the Syrian opposition. Thereafter, the UN should deploy its peacekeeping force to Syria. This move would be beneficial from different aspects. The UN peacekeepers, for example, would
- Establish and maintain the ceasefire in the country, up until the final decision of the Geneva conference/s.
- Control and observe the process of chemical weapons disarmament or destruction.
- Control that none of these chemical weapons would transfer to Lebanon or Iran, through air or ground borders.
- Confront the terrorist groups and dismantle some radical groups such as the Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra inside Syria.
- Protect the displaced people and the Syrian refugees.

Should this happen, the humanitarian organizations would also be able to provide better help and assistance to those Syrian people in need.

In sum, at this stage, deployment of the UN peacekeeping force to Syria would be beneficial, not only for the Syrian people but also for the neighboring countries from different angles. This move, in addition, would be beneficial in the short and long term for the Western countries, which are spending billions of dollars annually on some issue such as the war on terror.


M. Sirani                            06.10.2013