"And that`s unlikely to be sure."Washington (ANTARA News/AFP) - The United States is increasingly focused on how to secure Syria`s chemical weapons if President Bashar al-Assad falls from power but is not considering sending in ground troops, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said.
While the US government has issued stern warnings to the Syrian regime against resorting to chemical arms in its war with rebel forces, Panetta said that a more likely scenario might be a chaotic vacuum if Assad is toppled.
"I think the greater concern right now is what steps does the international community take to make sure that when Assad comes down, that there is a process and procedure to make sure we get our hands on securing those sites," Panetta told a news conference. "That I think is the greater challenge right now."
The US government was discussing the issue with Israel and other countries in the region he said but ruled out deploying American ground forces in a "hostile" setting.
"We`re not talking about ground troops," Panetta added.
The US military`s top officer, General Martin Dempsey, told the same news conference that if Assad chose to use his chemical stockpiles against opposition forces, it would be virtually impossible to stop him.
Preventing the launch of chemical weapons "would be almost unachievable... because you would have to have such clarity of intelligence, you know, persistent surveillance, you would have to actually see it before it happened."
"And that`s unlikely to be sure."
(Uu.G003/M016)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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