Report: Czechoslovakia aided Syria in the 1980s in stockpiling chemical weapons

The New York Times, in an article from September 7, cited a US national intelligence report from 1991, now declassified, stating that both the Soviet Union and Iran but also states such as the former Czechoslovakia (then a communist regime) provided chemical agents, delivery systems or training to Syria pre-1991. In the 1980s, Syria built up its chemical weapons stockpile and weapons arsenal despite opposition from an “expanding group of nations”, according to the daily. Some of those weapons, it suggested, may have been deployed in the attack on civilians in Damascus on August 21. American President Barack Obama is currently weighing oppositions against the Assad regime; the Czech Republic, like some of its neighbours, has stated it favours of a diplomatic solution over a military strike.