Israel twice struck chemical weapons facilities in Syria over the past two years in a campaign to prevent Syria from renewing chemical weapons production, the Washington Post reported on Monday.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

The accuracy of the report, which cited unidentified current and former US and Western intelligence officials, was confirmed to Reuters by a person familiar with the operation who declined to be identified by name or nationality.

The IDF declined to comment.

There was no immediate comment from officials in Syria. Syria's government denies using chemical weapons. In 2013 it promised to surrender its chemical weapons, which it says it has done.

Repeated investigations by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons concluded that Syrian government forces used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine barrel bombs in attacks between 2015 and 2018 that investigators said killed or injured thousands.

Israel has acknowledged conducting airstrikes in Syria against Iranian deployments or weapon hand-overs to guerrilla allies.

But, the newspaper reported, on June 8 Israeli Air Force jets hit three military targets near the cities of Damascus and Homs, all linked to Syria's former chemical weapons program.

In March the previous year, Israel targeted a villa and compound tied with the procurement of tricalcium phosphate (TCP), a chemical that can be used in nerve agents, the report said. The Post quoted Western intelligence officials who said that the TCP was ultimately intended to be used by the branch of the Syrian military that oversaw chemical weapons production until "at least" 2014.

The same officials said that prior to the airstrikes in March 2020 and June of this year, there were signs that the regime was poised to relaunch the manufacture of chemical weapons.

Repeated investigations by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons concluded that Syrian government forces used the nerve agent sarin and chlorine barrel bombs in attacks between 2015 and 2018 that investigators said killed or injured thousands.

Israeli officials have voiced concern about the possibility of Syrian chemical weapons falling into the hands of terrorist groups.

The report also noted that both the Trump and Biden administrations were notified about the strikes and the intelligence that prompted them shortly after they took place.

i24NEWS contributed to this report

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Report: Israeli strikes take out Syria's chemical weapons production appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The head of the international chemical weapons watchdog told the UN Security Council that its experts have investigated 77 allegations against Syria, and concluded that in 17 cases chemical weapons were likely or definitely used.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Fernando Arias called it "a disturbing reality" that eight years after Syria joined the Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans the production or use of such weapons, many questions remain about its initial declaration of its weapons, stockpiles and precursors and its ongoing program.

He said Thursday that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons will be taking up a new issue at its next consultations with Syria – "the presence of a new chemical weapons agent found in samples collected in large storage containers in September 2020."

Arias said he sent a letter informing the Syrian government that he intended to send an OPCW team to look into this issue from May 18 to June 1, and requested visas but never got a response. He said he informed Damascus he was postponing the arrival to May 28.

With no reply from Syria by May 26, he said, "I decided to postpone the mission until further notice."

Syria was pressed to join the Chemical Weapons Convention in September 2013 by its close ally Russia after a deadly chemical weapons attack that the West blamed on Damascus. By August 2014, Syrian President Bashar Assad's government declared that the destruction of its chemical weapons was completed. But Syria's initial declaration to the OPCW has remained in dispute.

In April 2020, OPCW investigators blamed three chemical attacks in 2017 on the Syrian government. The OPCW Executive Council responded by demanding that Syria provide details.

When it didn't, France submitted a draft measure on behalf of 46 countries in November to suspend Syria's "rights and privileges" in the global watchdog. In an unprecedented vote on April 21, the OPCW suspended Syria's rights until all outstanding issues are resolved.

Russia has sharply criticized the OPCW and its investigators, accusing them of factual and technical errors and acting under pressure from Western nations.

Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia kept up the attack on Thursday, accusing the chemical weapons watchdog of using information "from biased sources opposed to the Syrian government," of collecting evidence remotely and relying on "pseudo witnesses."

He said the purpose of the council meeting was not to "interrogate" Arias by asking "uncomfortable" questions, as some council members said, but "to work collectively to improve the deplorable situation that has evolved in the OPCW."

"We need to talk frankly with the OPCW leadership in order to preclude further erosion of its authority and prevent recurrence of the miserable situation that happened in April," when it voted "to incapacitate ... a sovereign state that faithfully complies" with the Chemical Weapons Convention, Nebenzia said. "We are concerned over increasing politicization of its work, initiated by our Western colleagues."

The Russian ambassador said he was surprised that Arias expressed surprise that Syria was not cooperating with the OPCW investigation team charged with determining responsibility for chemical attacks.

"It is not surprising that Syria never recognized the legitimacy of the group, neither did we," Nebenzia said. "The group was established illegitimately. You cannot expect that Syria will be cooperating with it."

Britain's UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward countered that "the facts of this case are clear."

"There are 20 unresolved issues in Syria's initial chemical weapons declaration, which is deeply concerning," she said. "The UN and the OPCW have attributed eight chemical weapons attacks to the Syrian regime. It's clear that the regime retains a chemical weapons capability and the willingness to use it."

Woodward said the Security Council will continue to insist on Syria's full cooperation with the OPCW, "and the full and verifiable destruction of Syria's chemical program."

US Deputy Ambassador Richard Mills said, "No amount of disinformation – espoused by Syria and its very small number of supporters – can negate or diminish the credibility of the evidence that has been presented to us by the OPCW."

"The Assad regime – supported by Russia – continues to ignore calls from the international community to fully disclose and verifiably destroy its chemical weapons program," Mills said. "Without accountability for the atrocities committed against the Syrian people, lasting peace in Syria will remain out of reach. The United States, once again, calls for justice and accountability as critical components to help move Syria towards a political resolution to the conflict."

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The post Watchdog: Syria has likely used chemical weapons 17 times appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Thirty-seven years after working for Israel, Jonathan Pollard, who spied for Israel from the heart of American intelligence, tells his story for the first time as a free man in a special interview to Israel Hayom, to be published in full on Friday.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

In a series of meetings at his home in Jerusalem, Pollard went into the details about his decision to hand over to Israel vital information for its security, his conversations with Rafi Eitan, head of the Bureau of Scientific Contacts, who was responsible for his handling, the moments when he was taken out of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, the decades of imprisonment in the US, and his new life in Israel.

Pollard recounts the evening he called his then-wife, Anne, and apologized about not coming home for dinner, reciting the code words the couple had made up just a few days earlier: She needed to "water the cactus." That meant, he said, that she needed to leave town because he had been caught. Anne Pollard evaded the FBI and managed to get to Aviem Sella, his handler, who left the country.

Sella left Anne behind, but that's "another story," Pollard says, explaining that she was supposed to have been taken outside the US.

Moving to the present day, after his release, Pollard says the people in his new neighborhood are "wonderful." When he needs to, he goes out to the small market on the corner, and sometimes he and his wife, Esther, go grocery shopping together. It's hard for him to walk because of back pain and leg pain, he says, but it's "hard to describe" the wonder of taking a walk with Esther.

"Everything is so wonderful, the sky is blue and beautiful," he says. People talk to them, he says, and from the conversations, he gets the sense that "they know" that "someone was willing to sacrifice his life for them."

One thing puzzles him: Why do people ask to take selfies with him? He laughs at the "nonsense."

"When I went to prison, there were no smartphones and no selfies. Esther and I are both very private people, and privacy is important to us," he says.

The great tragedy

Pollard and Esther speak honestly about the heavy price they paid by not being able to have children while he was in prison for 30 years. Esther calls it "one of our greatest tragedies; one of the things that caused us the greatest grief."

Esther says that people in Israel are used to the idea that a person has a "basic right to have children – in the US, it's exactly the opposite." The moment you're convicted, she says, you no longer have rights – certainly not the right to have children. She says the couple "begged" the government to allow us the chance to have children, in any place and in any way. But in the US a wife is not allowed to be alone with her imprisoned husband, she says.

Pollard adds that anyone who says that men don't feel the same need for children that women do "is lying."

"Children are everything," he says.

Pollard, who was exposed and arrested in the fall of 1985, reveals in the interview that he and his former wife, Anne, are the ones who kept Sella out of the clutches of the FBI. He says the FBI stopped him outside his office, and he asked to be allowed to call Anne because Aviem and his wife were waiting for them at a restaurant to have dinner together. His main concern at that moment, he says, was to get Sella out of the country because he did not have diplomatic immunity.

He saw himself as disposable, whereas Sella was a hero, a "strategic asset" for Israel.

"I was just a soldier," he said.

Pollard describes the dramatic hours and days that preceded his capture by American authorities and his conversation with the security guard who brought him out of the embassy.

"The security guard told me, 'I'm sorry, Jerusalem told us that you need to go in and come out through the main gate.' I told him, 'I can't get to the main gate, 20 FBI agents are waiting for me outside. Do you know what they'll do to me?' And he said: 'Sorry, you have to leave.'"

In the interview, Pollard blames the late Rafi Eitan and his other Israeli handlers for his capture. He says that he was never trained as an agent, and there was no escape plan, and when he expressed concerns, Rafi brushed them off.

Pollard also discussed the many claims about him that were made over the years. He stresses that his only motivation for what he did was a desire to help Israel.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

Israel was under an intelligence embargo, he says. The Americans "stabbed Israel in the back" and didn't hand over information that they were obligated to under [existing] agreements. He says that not only was intelligence being kept from Israel, but Israel was being lied to. He says he was present in meetings where it happened.

"I know I crossed a line, but I had no choice," he says, pointing out that the threats to Israel were "serious." When an Arab state develops chemical weapons of mass destruction and the US hides that from Israel, every Jew should ask himself what "Never again" means, he says.

Rafi Eitan's family said in response to Pollard's comments that "Out of respect for his memory, total confidence in his integrity, wisdom, and motivation, which were solely for the sake of Israel – we as a family continue his path of refraining from any comment about Pollard."

Aviem Sella was unavailable for comment.

The post Pollard: The security guard told me to leave the embassy appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, one of the targets hit in central Syria is believed to have been a chemical-weapons production facility.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

If this is indeed the case, the Syrian regime has gone back to its wicked ways and continues to be active in developing chemical weapons, despite past efforts by the international community to disband Damascus' program, Professor Eyal Zisser, a lecturer in the Middle East History Department at Tel Aviv University, told Jewish News Syndicate on Sunday.

There have been concerns among international observers that Syria has restarted its chemical program. The regime led by Syrian President Bashar Assad has repeatedly used chemical weapons against its own Sunni citizens to conduct mass slaughter throughout the civil war.

Other targets hit in the strikes attributed to Israel appeared to include terror-cell positions in southern Syria, which Iran and Hezbollah were setting up as part of their long-term effort to create strike capabilities against Israel.

Such strikes appear to be a reflection of the fact that the Iranian policy of military and terrorist entrenchment in Syria remains in place, despite likely disapproval from Russia, the senior partner in the pro-Assad coalition, which has its own vision for Syria that does not include Iranian domination.

Under the leadership of the late Iranian Quds Force Commander, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the Iranians deployed advanced weapons such as cruise missiles to Syria and attempted to crate precision-guided missile bases throughout the country to threaten Israel with.

Israel has made it clear, through action and word, that it will not tolerate the presence of such weapons in Syria – or in Lebanon – and that it is prepared to take military action to stop its arrival.

After years of fighting in a brutal civil war that has cost the lives of more than half a million people, the Assad regime has regained more than 70% of Syrian territory, with the assistance of the Iranian axis and Russian air power. Syria continues to host Iranian forces that view their intervention in the civil war as an opportunity to turn Syria into a military attack platform against Israel.

The new Quds force chief, Maj. Gen. Esmail Ghaani, replaced Soleimani after the US drone strike assassination on Jan. 3 in Baghdad – an attack that replenished American deterrence in the region and caused the Iranians to recalculate their actions regarding attacks on US forces or interests.

Still, it's too soon to tell how Ghaani's leadership will affect Iranian actions in Syria, particularly when it comes to Israel.

"Soleimani set up the outline, and this is continuing," said Zisser. "I don't think Ghaani has yet had a chance to have his own influence. I assume this [the latest Iranian activities in Syria] is a continuation of what has occurred in the past, and that Ghaani is, in the meantime, continuing without a dramatic, sharp change in the trend. We'll have to continue to wait for that."

Growing tensions between Tehran and Ankara

Meanwhile, the shaky truce agreed upon by Turkey and Russia in Syria's Idlib region, designed to halt combat between Turkish and Assad regime forces, looks uncertain. Almost a million people have been forced out of their homes in the past three months as Damascus and its allies seek to retake the last zone under rebel control in northwest Syria.

The subsequent fighting has seen deadly exchanges of fire between the Turkish military, which is backing some of the rebel groups, and the Assad regime and its allied militias. There are no immediate implications of this fighting for Israel, but the growing tensions between Ankara and Tehran could not be seen as a negative geostrategic development from an Israeli perspective, argued Zisser.

"The fact that the matter was not immediately settled shows the limits of Russia's power," he said. "And therefore, this also means that Israel still has a window of opportunity to continue to act in Syria" against Iranian entrenchment.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Has Syria reactivated its chemical-weapons program? appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

In a report submitted to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' Executive Council, the organization's director-general said the traces were found late last year at Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Centre in Barzah.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Canada's OPCW envoy, Sabine Nolke, said in a speech to the meeting that the discovery, and reports that Syria destroyed equipment and munitions that had been earmarked for further assessment, add to "growing evidence of deliberately false declarations by Syria, destruction of possible evidence, and the alarming likelihood that Syria continues to possess Schedule 1 chemicals."

Schedule 1 chemicals include sarin, VX and sulfur mustard.

Director-General Fernando Arias also reported that Syria has refused to issue a visa to the coordinator of an OPCW team that aims to attribute blame for chemical weapons attacks in the country.

Britain's OPCW representative, Ambassador Peter Wilson, called that decision "completely unacceptable" in a speech to the behind-closed-doors meeting. The text of Wilson's speech was published online.

"Syria insists that it has no chemical weapons program – why then is it trying so hard to prevent those who have used chemical weapons on its territory from being identified?" Wilson said.

Syria is not a member of the OPCW's 41-nation executive council. The government in Damascus did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Syria agreed in 2013 to join the OPCW and relinquish its chemical weapons stockpile in a move that averted a US military strike in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.

Syria's declared chemical weapon stockpile was destroyed in an international operation, but doubts have remained ever since about whether Damascus' declaration was complete, and there have been repeated chemical attacks in the country in the years since Syria joined the OCPW.

The government of Syrian President Bashar Assad denies involvement in chemical attacks, but a joint United Nations-OPCW team blamed Damascus for two chlorine attacks and an attack using sarin. The team also accused the Islamic State extremist group of using mustard gas in 2015 and again in September 2016 in Um Hosh, in Aleppo.

Speaking on behalf of the European Union, Finland's representative to the OPCW, Paivi Kaukoranta, also expressed concern at Syria's "continued breach of its obligations" to the organization "due to its failure to provide a complete Declaration and to destroy all of its CW and CW production facilities."

The post Chemical weapons watchdog members voice concerns over Syria appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The U.S. said on May 22 it had received numerous reports that appeared consistent with chemical exposure after forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad launched an offensive on the rebel stronghold. The State Department warned that Washington and its allies would respond "quickly and appropriately" if this were proven.

"We have a sign of the use of chemical weapons in the Idlib area, but for now there isn't verification," Jean-Yves Le Drian told the French Parliament's foreign affairs committee.

"We are cautious because we think that the use of chemical weapons must be confirmed and lethal before we react," he said.

Syria's government denies using chemical weapons.

The U.S., Britain and France launched air strikes in April 2018 against what they described as three Syrian chemical weapons targets in retaliation for a suspected gas attack that killed scores of people in the Damascus suburb earlier that month.

Rebels fighting on the mountainous western edge of Syria's last big rebel enclave of Idlib said on May 19 that the army had shelled them with poison gas, leading some to suffer choking symptoms. They said they had not documented the attack because they were under bombardment when it occurred.

The post France says signs of Syria chemical attack, but still needs to confirm reports appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

"We have no proof at all of the attack," Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told the AFP news agency.

"We have not documented any chemical attack in the mountains of Latakia," he said.

The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, led by Syria's former al-Qaida affiliate, accused government forces on Sunday of launching a chlorine gas attack on its fighters in the north of Latakia province.

The Syrian army dismissed the reports as a fabrication, a military source told the pro-government Al-Watan newspaper.

But the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday it was assessing indications that Assad's government had used chemical weapons.

"We are still gathering information on this incident, but we repeat our warning that if the Assad regime uses chemical weapons, the United States and our allies will respond quickly and appropriately," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

The head of Observatory said that only jihadists were present at the site of Sunday's alleged attack, making it nearly impossible to objectively confirm the incident.

"There were no civilians in the area," Abdel Rahman said.

White Helmets rescue volunteers, who have reported past chemical attacks in rebel-held areas of Syria, told AFP Wednesday that they had no information on the purported gas attack.

Meanwhile, the French foreign ministry said Wednesday that the allegations of a chemical attack by Syrian government forces must be investigated.

"We have noted with a degree of alarm these allegations, which need to be looked into," the foreign ministry said in an online press briefing.

"We have full confidence in the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," it added.

Part of this article was originally published by i24NEWS. Read more at https://www.i24news.tv/en.

The post Syria monitor: No evidence of new chemical attacks appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

"Unfortunately, we continue to see signs that the Assad regime may be renewing its use of chemical weapons, including an alleged chlorine attack in northwest Syria on the morning of May 19," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

"We are still gathering information on this incident, but we repeat our warning that if the Assad regime uses chemical weapons, the United States and our allies will respond quickly and appropriately," she said.

Ortagus said the alleged attack was part of a violent campaign by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces violating a ceasefire that has protected several million civilians in the greater Idlib area.

"The regime's attacks against the communities of northwest Syria must end," the statement said. "The United States reiterates its warning, first issued by President [Donald] Trump in September 2018, that an attack against the Idlib de-escalation zone would be a reckless escalation that threatens to destabilize the region."

The Trump administration has twice bombed Syria over Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons, in April 2017 and April 2018. In September, a senior U.S. official said there was evidence showing chemical weapons were being prepared by Syrian government forces in Idlib, the last major rebel stronghold in the country.

"The Assad regime must not repeat the use of chemical weapons in Syria," Commander Sean Robertson, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement. "There should be no doubt as to our determination to act strongly and swiftly should the Assad regime use these weapons again in the future," he said.

The Russian military said al-Qaida-linked terrorists in northwestern Syria launched an attack on Syrian government forces, Tuesday, including with tanks.

Maj. Gen. Viktor Kupchishin, the head of the Russian military's Reconciliation Center in Syria, said the Syrian army was fighting back against the offensive in Idlib province.

Kupchishin said terrorists captured by Syrian troops spoke of a plan to stage fake chemical attacks in the towns of Saraqib and Jarjanaz and blame them on government forces. He claimed the militants had created a special "Chemical Wing" to produce and stockpile toxic agents.

The U.S. State Department disputed that claim, calling it an attempt to distract attention from efforts by Assad to begin using chemical arms again.

The State Department said the Russian allegations are "part of a continuing disinformation campaign ... to create the false narrative that others are to blame for chemical weapons attacks that the Assad regime itself is conducting."

"The facts, however, are clear," the statement said. "The Assad regime itself has conducted almost all verified chemical weapons attacks that have taken place in Syria – a conclusion the United Nations has reached over and over again."

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Syrian government had a history of resorting to chemical weapons when fighting intensified. The official, however, was not aware of any confirmation of what substance was allegedly used, if at all, and said the U.S. government was still gathering information.

There was no immediate comment from the Syrian government on the U.S. statement.

In March, Syrian state media cited a hospital in government-held Hama as saying 21 people suffered choking symptoms from poison gas after rebels shelled a village.

In January, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton warned the Syrian government against using chemical weapons again.

"There is absolutely no change in the U.S. position against the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime and absolutely no change in our position that any use of chemical weapons would be met by a very strong response, as we've done twice before," Bolton said at the time.

In related news, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said his country will not evacuate its military observation post in northern Syria's Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in the region, after a suspected Syrian government attack this month.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency has reported that Syrian government forces have carried out at least three attacks near a Turkish observation post in the Idlib de-escalation zone, one of 12 posts set up under an agreement between Turkey, Russia and Iran last May.

"Evacuating the observation post in Idlib after the regime's attack is definitely not happening, it won't happen anywhere," Akar told reporters late on Tuesday.

"The Turkish Armed Forces will not retreat from where it is located."

More than 3 million people live in Idlib and surrounding areas, including many who fled government advances in other parts of Syria in recent years.

At least 180,000 people have fled an upsurge in violence in northwest Syria, and government bombings have killed dozens in the past three weeks.

Since last year, the region has been partly shielded in a ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey, but much of the recent fighting has hit that buffer zone.

The possibility of an Idlib offensive has drawn warnings of yet another humanitarian catastrophe, with the U.N. warning that up to 2.5 million people could flee toward the Turkish border in such a scenario.

"The regime is doing its best to disrupt the status quo, using barrel bombs, land offensives and air bombings," Akar said, adding that 300,000 people had been displaced due to the conflict in the past month.

Akar said the beginning of a "new tragedy" had been prevented and he had discussed preventing a new wave of migrants into Turkey with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

The post US sees signs Syria may be using chemical weapons, warns of quick response appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The panel of experts monitoring sanctions against North Korea said its investigations into Pyongyang's transfer of prohibited ballistic missile, conventional arms and dual-use goods found more than 40 previously unreported shipments to Syria between 2012 and 2017.

It said an unnamed U.N. member state also reported evidence of Myanmar having received a range of conventional weapons from North Korea, including multiple rocket launchers and surface-to-air missiles in addition to ballistic missile systems.

Earlier this month, The Associated Press reported that according to the experts, North Korea was flouting U.N. sanctions on oil and gas, engaging in prohibited ballistic missile cooperation with Syria and Myanmar, and illegally exporting commodities that brought in nearly $200 million in just nine months last year.

The U.S. and other Western nations have accused Syria of using chemical weapons against rebel-controlled areas including recently in the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta – allegations that Syrian President Bashar Assad's government denies.

The report, submitted to the U.N. Security Council and expected to be made public in mid-March, details "substantial new evidence" about North Korea's dealings with Syria, dating back to 2008.

According to an unidentified member state, the North's Ryonhap-2 Corporation was involved that year in a Syrian ballistic missile program, the "maneuverable re-entry vehicle (MARV) Scud D (MD) project," the report said.

More recently, the report added, the August 2016 visit by a technical delegation from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea – the country's official name – "involved the transfer to Syria of special resistance valves and thermometers known for use in chemical weapons programs."

That information came from another member state which also reported that North Korean technicians "continue to operate at chemical weapons and missile facilities at Barzeh, Adra and Hama," the report said.

The report also includes Syria's reply to the allegations: "There are no DPRK technical companies in Syria and the only presence of some DPRK individuals are confined in the field of sports under private individual contracts for training athletics and gymnastics."

The experts added that they have not yet received a reply for documents supporting this claim and a list of all North Koreans who have traveled to Syria.

The panel said it also examined shipments interdicted by member states that were sent by the Chinese company Cheng Tong Trading to Damascus-based companies in 2016 and 2017.

The experts said 13 shipping containers were filled with "acid resistant tiles" which would cover 5,000 square meters (1.2 acres), enough for a large-scale industrial project.

One country's analysis concluded that the tiles "were to be used for activities conducted at high temperatures," the panel said, while another country said the material "can be used to build bricks for the interior walls of [a] chemical factory."

The panel also said it was continuing to investigate the activities of Ryu Jin, a senior official in Syria for the Korea Mining Development Trading Corporation known as KOMID, who is on the U.N. sanctions blacklist. He listed his rank as a major general in a letter with an official proposal to Syrian Maj. Gen. Ali Salim of the Army Supply Bureau for "an air defense command and control system," it said.

KOMID is the DPRK's primary arms dealer and main exporter of goods and equipment related to ballistic missiles and conventional weapons.
The report said among other activities Ryu Jin shipped ball-bearings and fiber-optic cables to Syria and earned $68,000 $59,000, respectively, which was transferred through Tanchon Commercial Bank.

The panel said its investigations into several cases of previously unreported arms shipments and cooperation with front companies for those under U.N. sanctions between 2010 and 2017 "showed further evidence of arms embargo and other violations, including through the transfer of items with utility in ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs."

For many years, the panel said the DPRK Corst Company acted on behalf of the Second Economic Committee, which is under sanctions, to ship goods to Syria for use in prohibited programs.

The panel said it received documents in July 2017 showing Corst shipped banned goods to a researcher at Syria's Scientific Studies Research Council, which the U.S. says is the government agency responsible for developing and producing nonconventional weapons and the means to deliver them.
As for Myanmar, the panel said an unnamed member state reported that its Directorate of Defense Industries "maintains a sophisticated global procurement network" and "is seeking equipment from overseas suppliers for its DPRK-linked missile program."

The panel said it previously concluded that Myanmar's So Min Htike Co. Ltd, "was the consignee in the attempted transfer of prohibited nuclear-related items in 2012."

While Myanmar told the panel in 2015 that it only had "normal diplomatic ties" with the DPRK, it reported on July 26, 2017 that it expelled Kim Chol Nam, a DPRK diplomat "for acting on behalf or at the direction of KOMID." And on Jan. 24, 2018, the panel said, "Myanmar added that it was investigating the panel's latest request for information."

The post UN experts: North Korea sent banned chemical items to Syria appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.