U.S. deliberately shirks responsibility in bioweapon prohibition: experts

DAMASCUS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The United States has been refusing to fulfill its commitment to prohibiting the spread of biological weapons, deliberately shirking its due responsibility, Syrian experts have said.

Muhammad Omari, a political researcher, said what the United States has done shows that the country "does not want to be held responsible by the international law," but wants to "have some flexibility in accusing other countries of producing biological weapons."

It indicates that Washington "has something to hide," Omari added.

With the emergence of reports about the United States running secret biological labs in Ukraine recently, U.S. bio-military activities have caused grave concern across the world.

According to the information provided by the United States to the Conference of Parties of the Biological Weapons Convention, the country has over 300 biological laboratories in around 30 countries. Meanwhile, the United States is the sole possessor state party of chemical weapons.

The expert said one of the reasons behind the U.S. decision to build biological labs outside its territories is to keep the possible danger away from its own land, and to use those labs to undermine biological security of other countries.

In the view of political expert Osama Danura, despite Washington's denial of either having or running biological weapons in Ukraine, the United States has a recorded history of using nuclear and chemical weapons during its wars with other countries.

The United States, throughout history, was the sole country that has used nuclear weapons, Danura said, adding that the country also used chemical weapons, such as Agent Orange, a herbicide chemical, during the Vietnam war.