This annotated chronology is based on the data sources that follow each entry. Public sources often provide conflicting information on classified military programs. In some cases we are unable to resolve these discrepancies, in others we have deliberately refrained from doing so to highlight the potential influence of false or misleading information as it appeared over time. In many cases, we are unable to independently verify claims. Hence in reviewing this chronology, readers should take into account the credibility of the sources employed here.

Inclusion in this chronology does not necessarily indicate that a particular development is of direct or indirect proliferation significance. Some entries provide international or domestic context for technological development and national policymaking. Moreover, some entries may refer to developments with positive consequences for nonproliferation.

17 December 1968
Syria accedes to the 1925 Geneva Protocol.

Late 1972 through Mid-1973
Egypt supplies Syria with weaponized CW in preparation for Yom Kippur War. The shipment is variously described as mustard and sarin or mustard only.
—W. Seth Carus, "Chemical Weapons in the Middle East," Research Memorandum No. 9, (Washington, DC: Washington Institute for Near East Policy), 1988, p. 5.

October 1973
Syria suffers a major defeat by Israel in the Yom Kippur war. Some reports indicate that Israeli forces capture samples of Syrian chemical weapons.
—Statement in U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Bobbi Fielder (California), Congressional Record, Daily Edition, 17 May 1984, p. H4088.

1979-1982
It is claimed that Scud-B missiles have been fitted with VX warheads since 1979-1982.
—Paul Beaver, "Syria to Make Chemical Bomblets for Scud C's," Jane's Defence Weekly, 3 September 1997, p. 3.

February 1982
There are unsubstantiated claims by Amnesty International that Syrian forces employ cyanide gas during the suppression of Moslem brotherhood in Hama.
—Walter Andrews, "Assad: Terrorism's Master of Disaster," Washington Times, 9 December 1985, p. 4; Gordon M. Burck and Charles C. Flowerree, International Handbook on Chemical Weapons Proliferation (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991), p. 209.

June 1982
Syria suffers a major defeat by Israeli forces in Lebanon, including the destruction of air-force and air-defense network.
—Statement in U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Bobbi Fielder (California), Congressional Record, Daily Edition, 17 May 1984, p. H4088.

Late 1982
The Syrian leadership decides to build an indigenous chemical weapons capability.
—M. Zuhair Diab, "Syria's Chemical and Biological Weapons: Assessing Capabilities and Motivations," The Nonproliferation Review 5 (Fall 1997), p. 110.

1983
A US Special National Intelligence Estimate claims that Syria has an advanced chemical warfare capability.
—Don Oberdorfer, "Chemical arms curbs are sought," Washington Post, 9 September, 1985, pp. A1, 6; Gordon M. Burck and Charles C. Flowerree, International Handbook on Chemical Weapons Proliferation (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991), p. 209.

1983
Syria receives a shipment of corrosion-resistant glass vessels and pipes and other lab equipment apparently destined for a Damascus Research facility. The materials, imported from Germany, have the potential to be used for the production of chemical weapons agents.
—John J. Fialka, "Fighting Dirty: Western Industry Sells Third World the Means To Produce Poison Gas," Wall Street Journal, 16 September 1988, p. 1.

1985
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith indicates that Syria has a production capability for nerve agents.
—Tom Diaz, "Syria said to have offered chemical weapons to Iran," Washington Times, 9 December 1985, p. 4.

Early 1986
Unidentified US officials describe Syria's chemical weapons capabilities as including domestically produced sarin.
—Aharon Levran, ed., The Middle East Military Balance 1986 (Tel Aviv: Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies, 1987), pp. 94-95.

5 June 1986
The United States bans the sale of eight chemical precursors to Syria.
—David B. Ottaway, "Syria included in ban of chemical arms ingredients," Washington Post, 6 June 1986, p. A35.

7 August 1986
In a speech before Israel's National Defense College, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres announces that Syria is spending large sums to acquire surface-to-surface missiles and to develop chemical warheads. This publicly reported statement represents a change in Israeli policy, which had previously censored all mention of Syrian chemical weapons capabilities.
—Reuters, "Syria plans 'poison gas warheads'," Daily Telegraph, 8 August 1986.

7 August 1986
Syria is reported to be helping the Iranian CW program, which is described as much smaller than the Syrian program.
—Michael Gordon, "Talks resume to stop spread of chemical arms," New York Times, 25 August 1986, p. A4.

2 December 1986
Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin tells parliament, "we are aware that Syria is armed with chemical weapons—artillery shells, bombs, and ground-to-ground missile warheads...including nerve gas." He also states that Syria is engaged in the production of gas carrying bombs.
—Andrew Meisels, "Israel Confirms Syria has Chemical Weapons," Washington Times, 3 December 1986, p. 1.

4 August 1987
The United States adds eight more chemicals to the list of precursors banned from export to Syria.
—The Journal of Commerce, 4 August 1987, p. 6a.

24 March 1988
Colonel-General Vladmir K. Pikalov, chief of the Soviet Union's Chemical Troops, visits Syria and holds meetings with the defense minister, the commander in chief, and the deputy chief of staff of the Syrian armed forces. The purpose of the visit is to express the USSR's displeasure over the Syrian pursuit of chemical weapons in the wake of controversy generated by the Halabja incident in Iraq.
—Gordon M. Burck and Charles C. Flowerree, International Handbook on Chemical Weapons Proliferation (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991), pp. 216-217.

December 1988
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy publishes a report stating that Syria received a small number of chemical weapons from Egypt prior to the1973 Middle East war.
—W. Seth Carus, "Chemical Weapons in the Middle East," Research Memorandum No. 9, (Washington, DC: Washington Institute for Near East Policy), 1988.

1989
China sells Syria over 11,000 MF-11 gas masks. The exact date of the sale or the delivery remains unspecified.
—ASA Newsletter, No. 2, 1990, p. 4.

9 February 1989
In testimony before the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, CIA Director William Webster states, "Syria is stockpiling a variety of chemical warfare agents for various battlefield missions [and] producing and amassing a variety of munitions that can be used as delivery systems for chemical agents....Syria has nerve agents in some weapon systems."
—William Webster, Prepared Testimony, Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, 9 February 1989, p. 5.

22 February 1989
In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, the US Director of Naval Intelligence, Rear-Admiral Thomas Brooks, describes Syria as a country that has obtained or is developing CW capabilities.
—Admiral Thomas Brooks, prepared testimony, House Armed Services Committee, 22 February 1989, pp. 38-39.

September 1989
Syria, Egypt, Libya, Iran, and Iraq are all listed as openly deploying or suspected of producing chemical weapons.
—David Fairhall, "US-Soviet convention would help reverse trend to poison warfare," The Guardian (London), 26 September 1989, <http://web.lexis-nexis.com>.

1990
A classified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report claims Syria has two chemical munitions storage depots, at Khan Abu Shamat and Furqlus. It also claims that the Centre D'Etude et Recherche Scientifique, near Damascus, is Syria's primary chemical weapons research facility.
—E.J. Hogendoorn, "A Chemical Weapons Atlas," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 53 (September/October 1997), <http://www.bullatomsci.org/issues/1997/so97/so97hogendoom.html>. [Note: There is reference to a 1990 DIA report, "Offensive Chemical Warfare Programs in the Middle East," which had been released in sanitized form to the author under the freedom of information act.]

16 January 1990
A US Congressional Research Service publication notes that prior to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee's announcement, the Army Intelligence Agency included Syria in the list of countries suspected of possessing chemical weapons or being in the process of acquiring them.
—Steven R Bowman, Chemical weapons: a summary of proliferation and arms control activities, CRS Issue Brief (US Library of Congress: Congressional Research Service).

February 1990
Israeli reserve Brigadier-General Aharon Levran claims that Syria has now equipped several of its Scud missiles with chemical warheads.
—Jerusalem Post, 22 February 1990, <http://web.lexis-nexis.com>.

March 1990
Director of US Naval Intelligence Rear-Admiral Thomas Brooks names Syria as one of 12 third world states that has either achieved or is developing CW capabilities.
—Prepared statement, Rear Admiral Thomas A Brooks before the Seapower, Strategic, and Critical Materials Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, 14 March 1990, p. 53.

17 July 1990
Israeli Air Force commander Major-General Avihu Bin-Nun seeks to minimize the significance of the threat posed to Israel by Syrian chemical weapons. He notes that Syria did not use chemical weapons in 1973 even though its Army had been defeated and Israeli forces had advanced to within 41 kilometers of Damascus. This represents the first official open source support of claims that Syria possessed chemical weapons in 1973.
—Joshua Brilliant, "Best Defense is a Good Offense says Bin-Nun," Jerusalem Post, 17 July 1990, <http://web.lexis-nexis.com>.

23 November 1990
President George Bush meets with Syrian President Hafez Assad in Geneva and claims that Syria has equipped its stockpile of SS-21 missiles with chemical warheads.
—David Makovsky, "Bush-Assad meeting angers Jerusalem," Jerusalem Post, 22 November 1990, <http://web.lexis-nexis.com>.

March 1991
Director of US Naval Intelligence Rear-Admiral Thomas Brooks names Syria as one of 14 states that probably possesses chemical weapons.
—Statement of Rear Admiral Thomas A Brooks, USN, Director of Naval Intelligence, before the Seapower, Strategic, and Critical Materials Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, on Intelligence Issues, 7 March 1991, pp. 56-59.

March 1991
Syria has recently started to produce VX nerve agent according to unidentified intelligence sources quoted in the Washington Times.
—Bill Gertz, "North Korean Scuds added to Syrian arsenal," Washington Times, 13 March 1991, p. 3.

October 1991
Israeli Housing Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking at a meeting in Beersheba, says that Syria possesses the world's third-largest arsenal of chemical weapons.
—IDF Radio (Tel Aviv), 1500 hrs GMT 27 October 1991, as translated from the Hebrew in BBC Summary of World Broadcasts 30 October 1991 via FT Profile.

December 1991
Israeli Chief of Staff Ehud Baraq tells an audience of leading Israeli industrialists in Tel Aviv that the chemical weapons capability of Syria is larger than that of Iraq.
—"Investigation: Syrian CW programs," Middle East Defense News (Paris), 28 September 1992, pp. 5-6.

Early 1992
Syria allegedly test-fires chemical warheads.
—"Israeli claims that Syria is making VX nerve gas," Jane's Defence Weekly, 7 May 1997, p. 6, <http://www.janes.com>.

January 1992
In the US Senate, Director of Central Intelligence Robert Gates testifies on proliferation questions and mentions the existence of a chemical weapons program in Syria. He also states that Syria "apparently is seeking assistance from China and Western firms for an improved capability with chemical warheads."
—Robert Gates, Prepared Testimony, Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, 15 and 22 January 1992.

April 1992
A Syrian MiG-23 fighter-bomber makes the first test of dropping a VX bomb north of Damascus.
—"Syria's 'nerve gas' missiles," Jane's Foreign Report, 31 July 2003, <http://www.janes.com>.

30 May 1992
A 45-ton shipment of the nerve gas precursor trimethyl phosphite arrives from India at the premises of Damascus-based Setma Ltd. corporation.
—"Poison Gas for Syria is intercepted," International Herald Tribune, 10 August 1992, p. 2; Michael Rotem, "Indian Chemical Company Won't Stop Shipment To Syria," Jerusalem Post, 22 August 1992, p. 1.

July 1992
At the prompting of the German foreign ministry, authorities in Cyprus stop a German freighter en route to Syria, ordering it to return its cargo to India. The cargo includes 25 containers of the nerve agent precursor trimethyl phosphite, for which the German shippers had not obtained an export license. This is the second half of a $200,000 order placed with an Indian company, United Phosphorus Limited. It is claimed that the chemical is intended for production of the pesticide DDVP.
—"Poison Gas for Syria is intercepted," International Herald Tribune, 10 August 1992, p. 2; Michael Rotem, "Indian Chemical Company Won't Stop Shipment to Syria," Jerusalem Post, 22 August 1992, p. 1.

September 1992
Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Mordechai Gur speaks during a radio interview of the threat posed by Syrian production of chemical weapons, stating that Israel will continue to take action to stop it. "There is no need to panic, but we—those in charge of the defense establishment—must certainly view this with utmost seriousness," he says.
—IDF Radio (Tel Aviv), 0600 hrs GMT 25 September 1992, as translated from the Hebrew in FBIS-NES-92-188, 28 September 1992, p. 27.

September 1992
According to unidentified Israeli sources quoted by the Paris newsletter Middle East Defense News, in May 1992, the Syrian CW stockpile was estimated at "several thousand aerial bombs, filled mostly with sarin," and 50 to 100 ballistic missile warheads. Syria is described as being capable of producing several hundred tons of CW agents per year. Three chemical weapon production sites are identified, one located just north of Damascus, and the second near the industrial city of Homs. The third, in Hama, is believed to be producing VX nerve agent in addition to sarin and tabun while Israeli intelligence is reported to be monitoring several additional "suspicious sites."
—"Investigation: Syrian CW programs," Middle East Defense News (Paris), 28 September 1992, pp. 5-6.

September 1992
Jane's Foreign Report describes Syria as possessing two underground chemical weapons production facilities, one near the village of Safiya (Al-Safira), and the other on the main road to Damascus south of Homs. The report alleges that these facilities were constructed with the aid of West German companies and operated with East German technical assistance. They are supplied with precursors from India and have recently begun to produce VX nerve agent. Production had previously focused on mustard.
—"Syria's Secret Poison Gas Plants," Jane's Foreign Report, 10 September 1992, <http://www.janes.com>.

December 1992
At the Paris Conference, Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq Ash-Shar declares that Syria will not sign the Chemical Weapons Convention "because it will not agree to be exposed to the non-conventional threat from Israel."
—Al-Hayat (London), 18 December 1992, <http://web.lexis-nexis.com>.

	Updated November 2003