The suspicion that the Assad regime might use chemical weapons against its own people is extremely chilling. The production, stockpiling and use of these terrible devices is banned under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.

Only eight states have failed to sign or ratify the convention; Angola, Egypt, Israel, North Korea, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Myanmar. Many countries had chemical weapon stockpiles. Defensive training for armies to survive a chemical attack has long been standard. As of last November, more than 70 percent of the world’s stockpiles of this terrible armament had been destroyed. But not, it should be noted, in Israel, nor in Syria.

The question has to be however whether the Syrian regime really would turn, in an act of desperation, to this monstrous armament. Saddam Hussein dropped bombs with nerve agents on Kurdish villages. The enormity of this crime did much to swing world opinion against his government. In the first Gulf War to liberate Kuwait, the coalition forces carried heavy physical protection against poison gas attacks.

If Syria used its chemical arsenal against its rebels, Moscow would find itself hard-pressed to continue its robust defense of President Bashar Al-Assad and his regime. The death toll would very probably be terrible. The rebels have demonstrated proficient use of the Internet to get out pictures of atrocities. Footage of the consequences of a chemical attack would cause worldwide revulsion. Indeed they could very well provide a tipping point.

Whatever meager hope the regime in Damascus would have of surviving, would die along with the victims of the poison attack.

There is, of course, a far greater risk bound up with the Syrian stockpiles of chemical weapons. This is that, in the confusion of the regime’s collapse, some of this arsenal could be seized by terrorists. Al-Qaeda is already working in Syria, its operatives filtering over the border from Iraq. And it does not have to be hard-bitten terrorists who help themselves to these devices. We have seen in Libya how common criminals have plundered Gaddafi’s extensive weapons caches and have been busy smuggling weapons abroad and into the illegal international arms trade.

There is a further consideration. Terrorists would not be particularly interested in the bombs and shells and rockets used to deliver chemical agents. They want the poisons themselves, not least the deadly sarin, which is known to be part of Assad’s evil armory. A relatively small amount of this poison could be used by terrorists to wreak havoc in a major urban center. The consequences of such an attack on a city like Riyadh or New York are too terrible to imagine.

Therefore maybe the Russians could recover something of their honor by persuading Assad to transfer his entire chemical arsenal to Moscow’s naval base at Tartus, where it could be protected from terrorists and other heartless criminals. Assad would of course seek to make capital out of such a move. It would also make it easier for the Kremlin to continue its blind support for this monster, but at least it would deprive the terrorists of some deadly pickings.