Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi was not telling the world anything he knew when he acknowledged on Monday that his country does have chemical weapons.

“Syria will not use any chemical or other unconventional weapons against its civilians, and will only use them in case of external aggression,” Makdissi told reporters.

“Any stocks of chemical weapons that may exist, will never, ever be used against the Syrian people,” he said, adding that in the event of foreign attack, “the generals will be deciding when and how we use them.”

It was known from the 1980s that Syria was producing and stockpiling chemical weapons. It is believed to have reserves of sarin, mustard gas and cyanide, but the full details of its stockpile are unknown. It is one of eight states not to have joined the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention (others include Israel and Egypt).

There has been widespread concern that Syria’s stocks of chemical weapons could fall into the hands of the rebels fighting the government, some of whom are believed to have links to Al Qaeda.

The rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) said on Tuesday that the Syrian regime has moved chemical weapons to airports on its borders and offered to provide details of the locations of these weapons.

US intelligence reports recently suggested that some of Syria’s chemical weapons had been transferred, though the reasons were unclear. Some Western officials believe the material was being deliberately hidden from armed rebel groups or Western powers.

Israel says that it fears that Syria might give some of its chemical weapons to Lebanon’s Hizbollah, a sworn enemy of the Jewish state. The US was reportedly pressuring Israel not to take military action to prevent such transfer of the weapons.

The very fact that the Syrian foreign ministry referred to the country’s chemical weapons is an implicit warning to the international community. The rulers of Damascus know well that the world does not expect them to keep their promises and therefore will see the public admission that they possess chemical weapons as a reference to their options.

Syria’s unconventional weapons have become a source of concern from the early days of the anti-regime rebellion in the country. Their reported transfer adds new complexities to efforts to end the bloodshed in the country.