Global Security Newswire

Concerns over Syria's WMD capabilities should spur nations in general and Australia in particular to address the possible threat, according to a new study from an Australian think tank (see GSN, April 30).

"No challenge is more serious than the strategic consequences of unrestrained nuclear, biological and chemical weapons proliferation in the Middle East," says the report by Australian Strategic Policy Institute analyst Carl Ungerer.  "Dealing with the Syrian problem should therefore be a priority for any renewed Australian counterproliferation diplomacy."

"According to U.S. and Israeli intelligence estimates, Syria has … established an indigenous chemical weapons program including the stockpiling of several chemical agents for aerial bombs and between 100-200 chemical warheads for Scud-B and Scud-C ballistic missiles," the report says.

Australia has several policy options, according to Ungerer, including:

-- organizing an international campaign to press Syria to abandon any nuclear weapon ambitions;

-- urging Damascus to join the Chemical Weapons Convention (see GSN, April 25);

-- improving controls on exports of dual-use materials to the Middle East; and

-- supporting the expansion of U.S. Cooperative Threat Reduction efforts (David McLennan, Canberra Times, May 1).