AlterNet. By Thalif Deen. It's Not Just Syria: 6 Other Countries Haven't Banned Chemical Arms!

If Syria eventually agrees to relinquish its stockpile of chemical arms under the 1993 international Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), what of the six other countries that have either shown reluctance or refused to join the treaty? Currently, there are 189 states that have signed and ratified the treaty prohibiting the manufacture, use and transfer of the deadly weapons. But seven member states have been holdouts: Burma and Israel have signed bit not ratified, while Angola, North Korea, Egypt, South Sudan and Syria have neither signed nor ratified. If Syria agrees to accept the U.S.- Russia proposal to abandon its weapons under the CWC, it still leaves six others outside the treaty. A meeting of the Security Council to discuss Syria, scheduled to take place Tuesday, was cancelled without explanation. If a resolution, inspired by Western nations, is adopted by the Council later in the week, Syria is expected to agree to hand over all its chemical weapons for storage and destruction
by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) based in The Hague, Netherlands. Asked what progress the Security Council has made on the proposal, the president of the Council. Ambassador Gary Francis Qulian of Australia, told reporters it was premature to speculate. "It's a step by step process," he said. Stephen Zunes, professor pf politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco, who has written extensively on weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) singled out two other Middle Eastern nations, Egypt and Israel, as either having developed or used chemical weapons. He pointed out that Israel is widely believed to have produced and stockpiled an extensive range of chemical weapons and is engaged in ongoing research and development of additional chemical weaponry. "The insistence that Syria must unilaterally give up its chemical weapons is simply unreasonable," Zunes told IPS. No country, whether autocratic or democratic, could be expected to accept such conditions, he added. Egypt was the first country in the region to obtain and use chemical weapons, using phosgene and mustard gas in the region to obtain and use chemical weapons, using phosgene and mustard gas in the mis-1960s during its intervention in Yemen's civil war. "There is no indication Egypt has ever destroyed any of its chemical agents or weapons," said Zunes. The U.S. backed regime of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak continued its chemical weapons research and development programme until its ouster in a popular uprising two and a half years ago, and the programme until its ouster in a popular uprising two and a half years ago, and the programme until its ouster in a popular uprising two and a half years ago, and the programme is believed to have continued subsequently, he noted. Asked whether the United Nations has the capacity to handle the weapons, U.N. associate spokesperson Farhan Haq told IPS, "The secretary-general has consistently called for Syria to accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention and to fully abide by its responsibility to maintain the physical security of any chemical weapon stockpiles in its possessions"