Blix: No military option for Syrian WMD

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Former U.N. weapons inspection chief Hans Blix said there was likely no serious option for a military strike against Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles.

CNN reported Friday it had seen a draft resolution before the U.N. Security Council on Syria's chemical weapons program. It calls on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in The Hague, Netherlands, to verify whether or not Syria is meeting its disclosure obligations. The language in the draft, however, does not call for the use of military force, something backed by the U.S. government.

U.N. weapons inspectors in Syria confirmed the chemical nerve agent sarin was used in an August attack on a suburb in Damascus. U.S. President Barack Obama had said the use of chemical weapons would be a "red line" prompting a harsh response.

Hans Blix, former chief weapons inspector in Iraq, told al-Arabiya there was likely no serious consideration for a military strike on Syria's weapons cache.

"I don't think you want to attack a military store of chemical weapons because it might spread and might have casualties and we don't want that," he said in remarks published Friday. "So I don't think there was much of a serious idea, [or] intention of attacking the chemical [weapons stock]."

The OPCW said last week it was assessing a preliminary weapons disclosure from the Syrian government. U.N. weapons inspectors returned to the country earlier this week. Inspectors are not mandated to assess blame for any chemical weapons attack.