Israel asked Jordan on a number of occasions for "permission" to bomb Syrian chemical weapons sites according to The Atlantic. The report claims Jordan turned down Israeli requests on several occasions in the past two months as the country is reportedly wary of reprisals on Jordanian territory. Israeli officials have not commented on the report but it is widely believed Jerusalem is concerned about the Syrian regime's vast chemical weapon stockpiles falling into Hezbollah's hands which has provoked concern among Israeli citizens. The report in the Atlantic followed a New York Times report indicating that Western intelligence officials have observed new worrying signs of activity at chemical weapons sites in Syria. World leaders have repeatedly warned President Bashar al-Assad that using chemical weapons against his own people would constitute a red line which would demand an international military response -- a sentiment repeated by President Obama again this week.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was "not going to telegraph in any specifics"regarding what America would do in the event of credible evidence that the Assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against its own people. The Syrian regime is believed to hold the world's 3rd largest stockpile of chemical weapons and their deployment would represent a significant escalation in a conflict which has already claimed as many as 40,000 lives.
