its Saddam’s Sryia had no need for a program
Syria’s chemical weapons program began in the mid 1970s. According to Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yehoshua Saguy, who served as head of Military Intelligence from 1979 to 1983, Egypt assisted the Syrians in starting the program.
“It was after the Yom Kippur War which they ultimately lost, and there were rumors about Israel’s purported nuclear capability,” Saguy recalled this week. “It was a totalitarian regime so they just diverted funds, purchased some basic capabilities from Egypt and later, with the help of experts from the former Soviet Union, began to build their own independent infrastructure.”
It took only a few years for the program to take off, and in 1982 the world witnessed what a dictator with chemical weapons was capable of doing. Hafez Assad ordered his military to quell Muslim Brotherhood protests in Hama. In addition to heavy shelling, the forces also used poisonous gas to kill the protesters.
At a later stage and as a cover, the Syrians established a civilian research facility near Damascus – called the Scientific Studies and Research Center – to purchase the dual-use technologies it needed for the production of its various chemical weapons: Sarin and VX nerve agents as well as mustard gas.
http://www.jpost.com/Features/FrontLines/Article.aspx?id=273925