SOURCES: IRAN PROTECTING SYRIA’S CHEMICAL WEAPONS. Tehran fears further Israeli airstrikes targeting Damascus

Posted on February 4, 2013 at 3:29 AM EST

By Aaron Klein
TEL AVIV — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard units are currently working to secure Syria’s missile arsenal and sensitive military installations and components, including the country’s chemical weapons, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials.
The officials said Iran is acting to protect Syria from further possible Israeli airstrikes.
On Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Iran had stepped up its military and financial aid to the Syrian government. She did not divulge any more details.
She was speaking after last week’s Israeli strike in Syria.
The Syrian army claimed Israeli war planes had bombed a military research centre north-west of Damascus, but the US and others said the targets were convoys carrying weapons intended for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In Beirut on Thursday Syria’s ambassador said Damascus could take “a surprise decision to respond to the aggression of the Israeli warplanes.” He gave no details but said Syria was “defending its sovereignty and its land.”
Regarding Syrian chemical weapons, in December KleinOnline reported Iran had passed non-conventional weapons to Syria for possible use in the event the regime of Bashar al-Assad faces imminent collapse, according to knowledgeable Middle Eastern security officials.
Last month, KleinOnline reported Israeli special forces were operating inside Syria to track the country’s non-conventional weapons as well as any such weapons that may be in possession of the rebels, according to informed Middle Eastern intelligence sources.
The sources confirmed a Sunday Times report from December that also noted Israeli special forces were on the ground in Syria working as spotters to track the regime’s stocks of chemical and biological weapons.
“For years we’ve known the exact location of Syria’s chemical and biological munitions,” an Israeli source told the Sunday Times. “But in the past week we’ve got signs that munitions have been moved to new locations.”