Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has ruled out the capture of Syria’s
chemical weapons facilities amid reports of non-conventional attacks by the
regime of President Bashar Assad.

Officials said the administration of President Barack Obama has told
Congress that the prospect of U.S. military intervention was unlikely to
stop Assad’s CW operations against Sunni rebels. They acknowledged that Assad’s
military might have been firing artillery shells filled with mustard gas
toward rebel strongholds.

“They’ve been moving it and the number of sites is quite numerous,” U.S.
Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said.

In an appearance to the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 17,
Dempsey reflected the administration’s policy of restraint amid the
two-year-old civil war in Syria. Dempsey said he was uncertain that U.S.
troops, even with the help of the rebels, could capture Assad’s CW arsenal.

“If we had confidence [that] the opposition could secure [the CW
facilities], then we could secure it,” Dempsey said.

Britain and France have informed the United Nations that Assad was
probably employing CW against the rebels. Officials said both NATO allies
have presented evidence, including soil samples, that mustard gas and other toxic chemicals were fired in 2013.

On April 20, NATO and Arab states discussed additional aid to Sunni
rebels in the Turkish city of Istanbul. Secretary of State John Kerry was
scheduled to announce that the United States would supply $130 million in
non-lethal equipment.

“We need to change President Assad’s calculation, that is clear,” Kerry
said. “That equation somehow has to change.”

Dempsey’s testimony marked the latest in a series of statements that
appeared to rule out U.S. military intervention to stop Assad’s CW strikes.
As late as December 2012, the administration warned that it would not
tolerate the use of non-conventional weapons in the war in Syria.

Over the last few months, Washington has sought to aid Syria’s neighbor,
Jordan, to prevent the spread of the civil war. The administration has
informed Congress of the deployment of 200 U.S. troops assigned to intensify
Jordanian security and surveillance.

But Dempsey dismissed the likelihood that Sunni rebels would cooperate
with any U.S. military operation in Syria. He cited the significant presence
of Al Qaida-aligned fighters in the war against Assad.

“If we had to go in there, it would be non-permissive,” Dempsey said.

  Al Qaida-aligned fighters, Bashar Assad, John Kerry, mustard gas, Senate Armed Services Committee, U.S. won’t intervene to stop Syrian CW attacks