Other Names: CERS, Scientific Studies and Research Center
Location: Damascus
Phone number: +963 11 772 603
Fax number: +963 11 2223771
Website: http://www.ifip.or.at/members/syria.htm
Subordinate to: President of the Syrian Republic
Director: Mr. Amr Armanazi
Size: Unknown
Primary Function: Agency responsible for all procurement, research, development, and production activities associated with the Syrian CW program; chemical weapons production facility for sarin and VX; chemical weapon bomblets production facility.

Description:
Initially established in 1971, the overt goals of the CERS are to promote and coordinate scientific activities in the country, particularly those related to education, research, development, donsulting, manufacturing and maintenance. One objective was to work on research and development projects needed for the economic and social development of the country, particularly focusing on the computerization of governmental enterprises and institutions. However, the center has been identified by Western agencies as the key organization in the development of Syrian WMD programs.

Since the mid-1980s, the center has been associated with reports of the production of CW agents, primarily sarin and VX. Additionally, it is the primary research establishment for investigation into new CW agents and new production processes. It may be that there has been some confusion between the center's research activities, which might involve the production of small batches of CW agents at a laboratory scale, and a separate industrial-scale CW production facility also located in the Damascus area. Available information does not allow a clear determination on this matter.

Key Sources: 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.]; Middle East Defense News (Paris), 28 September 1992, pp. 5-6; Anthony Cordesman, Syria and Weapons of Mass Destruction, (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2000), p. 7; Dany Shoham, "Gas, Guile and Germs: Syria's Ultimate Weapons," Middle East Quarterly (Summer 2002), <http://www.meforum.org>; Paul Beaver, "Syria to Make Chemical Bomblets for Scud C's," Jane's Defence Weekly, 3 September 1997, p. 3.

	Updated November 2003