Syria's Assad Finds Chemical Weapons Loophole

President Bashar Assad appears to have found a loophole in an international deal designed to stop him gassing his own people.

In September last year, an alleged sarin gas attack in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta led to an agreement with the international community that was meant to see him hand over his stockpile of chemical weapons - 1,300 tons of weapons including sarin and mustard gas.

America talked of red lines and it felt like the international community was inches away from air strikes on Damascus.

The deal averted all that, with Russia persuading President Assad to co-operate to get himself off the hook.

Predictably the deadline for the deal has been missed, but officials say more than 90% of weapons have been destroyed or shipped. 

President Assad stands accused of using chemical weapons to kill

But all that comes amid new claims of chemical attacks inside Syria, with the regime accused of gassing its own people not with sarin or mustard gas but chlorine and ammonia.

The problem for weapons inspectors is that there is nothing illegal about chlorine. In fact, you will find tons of it everywhere.

And it is impossible to give up. It is an industrial chemical and was not on the banned list given to Damascus.

The offence occurs when it is used as a toxic chemical to kill or injure, which is what President Assad stands accused of - again.

Using it as a weapon is a breach of the Chemicals Weapon Convention, of which President Assad is a signatory.

Britain's foreign secretary, William Hague, says the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons must carry out a promised investigation urgently. It all feels like deja vu.

The Syrian government has promised to provide security for the OPCW inspectors due to arrive soon but chlorine is non-persistent, meaning it does not stay around for very long - which could make proving the allegations very difficult.

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