ANI

The Syrian regime will deploy chemical weapons against its own people “as a last resort”, the former head of Syria’s chemical arsenal, has said.

Major-General Adnan Sillu said he defected from the Syrian Army three months ago after being part of top-levels talks about the use of chemical weapons on both rebel fighters and civilians.

“We were in a serious discussion about the use of chemical weapons, including how we would use them and in what areas,” The Telegraph quoted Sillu, as saying. ”We discussed this as a last resort – such as if the regime lost control of an important area such as Aleppo,” he added.

According to the report, Sillu said he was certain President Bashar al-Assad’s regime would eventually use chemical weapons against civilians, adding that the discussion had been “the last straw” which triggered his defection.

His comments come after German press reported on Tuesday that the Syrian army had tested a chemical weapons delivery system, the paper said. In his first interview since his defection, Sillu said the Syrian regime had also considered supplying chemical weapons to the Lebanon-based militant group Hizbollah.

“They wanted to place warheads with the chemical weapons on missiles – to transfer them this way to Hizbollah. It was for use against Israel, of course,” he said. He suggested that the regime now had “nothing to lose” in sharing the weapons and added, “If a war starts between Hizbollah and Israel it will be only good for Syria,” it added.

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