The Syrian army has used lethal chemical weapons during the country's civil war, Israel's top military intelligence analyst said Tuesday, heightening pressure on the White House to intervene more directly against strongman Bashar-al Assad.
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Secretary of State Kerry at a NATO meeting Tuesday in Brussels. He said Israel's Netanyahu hadn't been able to confirm the Syria weapons report.
"According to our professional assessment, the regime has used deadly chemical weapons against armed rebels on a number of occasions in the past few months," said Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, who heads the research division of Israel's intelligence branch.
Israel's first public allegation of Syrian chemical-weapons use followed disclosures last week that Britain and France believe they have credible evidence that Syria has used chemical weapons in small amounts.
U.S. officials said they were investigating the allegation. But they quickly voiced strong caution about the assessment—which, if borne out, could force the U.S. to make good on its threats to take action if Syria's government were to use chemical weapons against its people. A senior U.S. defense official played down what he called "low-confidence assessments by foreign governments" and said it would take time to reach a U.S. determination that could be the basis for U.S. action.
That sharp response appeared to convey a U.S. government caught off guard. Gen. Brun delivered his assessment at a security conference in Tel Aviv just as U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was wrapping up two days of meetings with Israel's civilian and military leaders. His agenda was topped by talks on Iran and on strengthening coordination over the security of Syria's chemical weapons.
Reuters A Free Syrian Army member walks past damaged buildings and debris in Deraa, Syria, on April 17.
President Barack Obama has sought to keep the U.S. out of the two-year-old conflict in Syria. But he has explicitly warned that use of chemical weapons by the Assad government would cross a "red line" for the U.S. Mr. Obama and his advisers haven't spelled out the consequences should such a determination be made.
But having ended the war in Iraq and started a quick drawdown of American troops from Afghanistan, Mr. Obama doesn't want to get sucked into another deadly and expensive conflict, current and former administration officials say. Administration policy makers are also mindful of the case made a decade earlier for war in Iraq, which the officials say stands as a cautionary tale about the dangers of intervening based on intelligence that isn't clear-cut and may ultimately prove wrong.
"The president has clearly stated that the use of chemical weapons would be a 'game changer.' Thus, we must be absolutely confident of use before determining how to respond," the senior U.S. official said.
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Israel's disclosure could prove particularly hard for Washington to discount, European diplomats say. Israel is thought by Western officials and analysts to have the best intelligence network inside Syria. The U.S. has relied on it heavily for intelligence about Syria's chemical weapons.
Israel's Gen. Brun singled out a March 19 attack in Syria in which "victims suffered from shrunken pupils, foaming from the mouth, and other symptoms which indicate the use of deadly chemical weapons."
"The type of chemical weapons was likely sarin, as well as neutralizing and nonlethal chemical weapons," Gen. Brun said, referring to what he said was a photograph of an attack victim. The Israeli assessment was based on broader intelligence, according to an Israeli official, who declined to elaborate.
It wasn't clear whether Israel's Mossad spy agency and other security branches agree with the assessment. A less conclusive picture emerged earlier this month when a senior official from another Israeli intelligence branch said there were growing signs of chemical-weapons use but "no smoking gun."
Later Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that he had spoken by telephone withIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about alleged Syrian use of chemical weapons but that the Israeli leader had been unable to confirm it. "The information I have at this point does not confirm it to me in a way that I would be comfortable commenting on it as a fact," Mr. Kerry said on the sidelines of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization meeting in Brussels.
U.S. administration officials said they don't think Mr. Brun's presentation was part of a concerted Israeli effort to drive a wedge between Messrs. Obama and Netanyahu over Syria. In Israel, as in the U.S., some intelligence branches may be more forward-leaning than others, as was the case with the Pentagon's own Defense Intelligence Agency, which recently broke ranks with top intelligence leaders over whether North Korea can put a nuclear warhead on a rocket.
British and French officials have likewise told the U.S.—and the U.N. secretary-general—that they believe they have credible evidence of chemical weapons activity in Syria. That belief is based on witness accounts and the British government's preliminary tests of soil samples collected from Syria. American intelligence agencies are reviewing the samples and other possible indications that Syrian forces used small amounts of chemical weapons in recent fighting, senior U.S. and European officials have said.
U.S. officials said American intelligence agencies haven't reached a consensus and that the evidence so far isn't conclusive.
Earlier
American intelligence agencies are reviewing what some officials see as the first credible indications that Syrian forces used small amounts of chemical weapons in recent fighting. Julian Barnes reports. (Originally published 4/18/13)
Some U.S. officials say the samples collected by Britain may have been tainted by rebels who want to draw the West into the conflict on their side. Likewise, they said the detection of chemical agents doesn't necessarily mean they were used in an attack by the Syrian regime.
One of the difficulties facing the U.S. in reaching a consensus is a lack of reliable intelligence from the chaotic war zone. The U.S. has satellites overhead but has few spies of its own on the ground, officials said. Likewise, the U.S. doesn't have sensors in the area to detect chemical agents.
As the Syrian regime has weakened, the U.S. and its allies have grown increasingly worried about the possibility of Damascus employing nonconventional weapons against the rebels. U.S. officials say Syria has one of the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons in the Middle East, guarded by a special unit of the military that answers to the top leadership.
Syria's government has never explicitly said it has chemical weapons. This past July, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi, who later defected and left the country, said Syria wouldn't use any stocks of weapons of mass destruction or unconventional arms that it may possess against its own people. He said that these weapons were well protected by the army and would only be used in the event of a foreign attack or invasion. Syria's government played down the statements, saying he had been speaking hypothetically.
Earlier this year, both the regime and rebels accused each other of using chemical weapons in a March 19 missile attack in a town on the outskirts of the northern city of Aleppo. The regime asked the U.N. to investigate. But this month, the regime rejected a bid by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to broaden the scope of the investigation to other areas, accusing him of succumbing to pressure from Western powers who have "ill intentions" toward Damascus.
The U.S. has dismissed Syrian government claims that the opposition used chemical weapons.
Senior European intelligence and defense officials say they believe the Assad regime may be using such agents in small amounts to test the West's intentions and chemical weapons detection capabilities.
Some U.S. officials doubt a limited use of chemical weapons, even if confirmed, would trigger a U.S. military response. These officials say the bar for military action is high because the White House isn't eager to be drawn into what could be an open-ended conflict.
In the past, the U.S. has quickly discounted reports of chemical weapons use in Syria, including when world powers rushed to investigate reports of a March 19 chemical weapon attack in Aleppo in which at least two dozen people were killed and scores more were injured.
In that and other cases, the symptoms reported by local doctors and Syrian rebels could have been caused by some common industrial chemicals and even spider bites, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. and Israel are also concerned that some of the chemical agents could fall under the control of militants—either Hezbollah fighters who have joined the battle alongside Mr. Assad's forces, or Islamists linked to al Qaeda who are fighting against the regime.
At a press conference Monday with Mr. Hagel, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon singled out such a transfer of chemical weapons as one of Israel's red lines, hinting that Israel could intervene militarily. Israeli warplanes in January bombed a convoy inside Syria that was suspected of carrying sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons. Officials said Israel acted because it believed that the weapons were being transferred to Hezbollah.
Mr. Little, the Pentagon spokesman, said the Syrian regime has an "obligation" to safeguard its chemical weapons stockpiles, and "not to use or transfer such weapons to terrorist groups like Hezbollah." He said any use of chemical weapons in the conflict would be "entirely unacceptable."
Mr. Little declined to say whether Israeli intelligence on alleged chemical weapons use in Syria was raised by Israeli officials directly with Mr. Hagel during his meetings in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem this week. Mr. Hagel met Tuesday morning in Jerusalem with Mr. Netanyahu. Spokesmen for each declined to say whether Israel's assessment about chemical weapons use was discussed during their meeting.
—Sam Dagher contributed to this article. Write to Stephen Fidler at stephen.fidler@wsj.com
