The US and UK strengthen their stance on Syria’s chemical weapons but are warned military intervention “will be no picnic”.

It comes after Britain and the US said they were drawing up plans to safeguard Syria’s chemical weapons if they are in danger of falling into terrorist groups’ hands as the civil war continues.

This has been interpreted as meaning Western special forces are operating inside the country.

The Syrian Information Minister Omran al Zoubi told  “Coming to Syria is not a picnic. But Syria does not want a war with anyone.”

He went on to deny that Syria had admitted it had chemical weapons, despite a statement by the Foreign Ministry last month which appeared to confirm they existed.

Mr al Zoubi said: “No, the statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been misquoted.

“The statement said if we had those chemical weapons we would not use them. Chemical weapons are like the nuclear weapons in Israel, they cannot be used in their own country or the neighbouring countries.

“It is a deterrent weapon. We have never said we have them.”

The minister also blamed the US and UK for supporting countries which he said were backing the al Qaeda presence in Syria – even though al Qaeda was one of the groups the two nations feared might get hold of chemical weapons.

“The authority over al Qaeda is possessed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey,” he said.

“And by the way, I’m not sure how much authority Britain and America have over al Qaeda and Saudi Arabia and Turkey, to stop them from fuelling this fire with arms and money.”

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