Chemical Weapons Reports Part of US Conspiracy: Syria

Syria believes a US/European "conspiracy" is afoot. The country's foreign minister alleged today that the West is fanning fears that Syria is preparing to use chemical weapons to justify an invasion, reports Reuters. "Syria stresses again, for the tenth, the hundredth time, that if we had such weapons, they would not be used against its people. We would not commit suicide," said Faisal Maqdad. Instead, he posits that the US and its European allies may have actually given chemical weapons to "terrorist organizations in Syria, in order to claim later that Syria is the one that used these weapons."

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton will renew efforts to forge an international consensus on Syria today with a surprise meeting with Russia's foreign minister and the UN's peace envoy for Syria, the State Department announced. The meeting will take place on the sidelines of a larger European security meeting, the New York Times reports, noting that a Turkish official recently said that Moscow was "softening" on Syria. (More Syria stories.)