Classified documents obtained by the Al Arabiya network and released Thursday have revealed that the Syrian regime moved a chemical weapons stockpile with the help of Iran and knowledge of Russia.
Furthermore, additional documents also reveal that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has also sought cross border cooperation with the State of Israel.
The confidential files were acquired by Al Arabiya with the assistance of members of the Syrian opposition who refused to elaborate on how they got hold of the documents.
Al Arabiya said it verified and authenticated hundreds of these documents and that it has decided to disclose the ones with substantial news value and political relevance.
One batch of leaked files obtained by the network contained documents related to the Syrian regime’s secret relations to Israel.
Officially, the two countries are at war, but on April 3, 2011, less than one month after the beginning of the popular uprising in Syria, the Chief of the Syrian Air Force Intelligence, Sakr Mennoun, sent a written order to Col. Suheil Hassan to head to the Syrian-Israeli borders and ensure the safety of the frontiers.
Mannoun requested from Hassan to secure the borders “in cooperation with the state of Israel.”
In another document obtained by Al Arabiya and sent from Iran, Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force, a division of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), addressed President Assad directly, affirming that the chemical warheads are ready to be relocated.
This was in contrary to previous statements by Iran that it would not support any country with plans to use the chemicals, noted the network.
Last week, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta divulged that the Syrians have moved some of their chemical weapons capability to better secure it.
It was not clear when the movement took place, or even if it was recent, but Panetta told a Pentagon news conference it had occurred in more than one case.
In another leaked document, also obtained by Al Arabiya, an order sent from the Syrian Presidential Palace and signed by the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service Maj. Gen. Bassam Marhej discusses the detection of an “administrative error.”
The error, which apparently is a leak of secret documents, was discovered by the Joint Command (Syria-Iran-Russia) in cooperation with the Syrian embassy in Moscow.
The supposed “error” was likely related to information about Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles, noted Al Arabiya.
Over the past week, the network has published several batches of classified documents it claims are authentic.
On Saturday, Al Arabiya published classified documents which allege that Turkish pilots killed in Syria after Syrian forces shot down their plane were deliberately executed following consultation between Damascus and Moscow.
A senior adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan subsequently said that the documents were fake, adding that “it is well known that intelligence documents do not look like this.”
On Sunday, the network published a second series of documents which claim that Assad’s regime was behind a pair of car bomb attacks which killed 55 people outside a military intelligence complex in the Qazzaz area of Damascus on May 10.
Al Arabiya has said that it will publish more classified documents on Saturday.