In a new media offensive against Damascus, Washington has claimed that the Syrian government possesses and intends to use chemical weapons.

“We believe Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile remains under Syrian government control,” said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor in a press conference in Washington on July 21.

“Given the escalation of violence in Syria… we remain very concerned about these weapons,” the spokesman added.

Vietor also stated that the United States is “actively consulting” Syria’s neighbors about the security of those weapons.

The White House spokesman made the remarks after a Syrian military defector claimed Damascus “has started moving its chemical stockpile and redistributing it to prepare for its use.”

The new remarks by the US official are believed to be the first attempts at orchestrating an Iraq-like scenario against Syria.

The anti-Syria Western regimes have been calling for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

On July 18, the New York Times reported that US officials have recently been in talks with Israelis “about whether Israel might move to destroy Syrian weapons facilities.”

The US daily also reported on June 21 that a group of CIA officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey and that the agents are helping the anti-Syria governments decide which gangs inside the Arab country will receive arms to fight the Syrian government.

President Assad told the German ARD television channel in an interview on July 5 that the United States is “part of the conflict” in the Arab country and that “they offer the umbrella and political support to those gangs to… destabilize Syria.”

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.

Source: PressTV