Israel claims Syria still has ‘three tonnes’ of banned chemical weapons hidden in its deadly arsenal
ISRAEL claims President Assad's military has several tonnes of chemical weapons left in its arsenal - two weeks after an infamous attack which killed nearly 90 people.
Many blame the horror strike on Syria and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has said his intelligence services would provide proof within days.
A senior Israeli military officer has now said "a few tonnes of chemical weapons" remained in the hands of Bashar al-Assad's forces.
Some local media reports quoted the briefing officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with Israeli military procedure, as putting the amount as up to three tonnes.
The comments come weeks after the sarin gas attack in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun which killed at least 89 people and injured hundreds more.
Assad insists his regime handed over all chemical weapons stockpiles in 2013, under a deal brokered by the regime's key ally, Russia, to avoid threatened US military action.
"There was no order to make any attack, we don't have any chemical weapons, we gave up our arsenal a few years ago," he said.
The evidence to the contrary is stacked high, however, with images beamed around the world of entire families suffering injuries and foaming at the mouth consistent with a chemical attack.
On 6 April, Israel's hard-line foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said with "100 percent" certainty that Assad ordered and planned the chemical attack.
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Those claims were later echoed by France, with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault branding Assad's denial of the attack as "100 percent lies and propaganda".
On Wednesday, he said his country would produce proof "in a few days" that Assad launched the chemical strike.
"We have elements that will allow us to show that the regime knowingly used chemical weapons," Ayrault said of the suspected chemical attack in Khan Sheikhun on 4 April.
"In a few days I will be able to bring you the proof," he told French television.
In a 2013 agreement brokered by Russia and the United States, Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons.
However, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical weapons, a global watchdog, has said sarin or a similar banned toxin was used in the April 4 strike.
The findings supported earlier testing by Turkish and British laboratories.
President Donald Trump branded the Syrian despot “an animal” following the attack.
His military launched a 59 missile attack on a Syrian air base in response to the atrocity.