Israel's top general during Iraq War: Saddam's WMD moved to Syria six weeks before war

Saddam Hussein moved his chemical weapons to Syria six weeks before the war started, Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom says. Lt.-Gen. Moshe Yaalon asserted that Saddam spirited his chemical weapons out of the country on the eve of the war. "He transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria," Gen. Yaalon told the New York Sun on Tuesday. "No one went to Syria to find it." An official at the Iraqi embassy in Washington, Entifadh Qanbar, said he believed the Israeli general's account.

An article in the Fall 2005 Middle East Quarterly reports that in an appearance on Israel's Channel 2 on December 23, 2002, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon stated, "Chemical and biological weapons which Saddam is endeavoring to conceal have been moved from Iraq to Syria."

Syria is one of only eight countries that has not signed the Chemical Weapons Convention.