John Gilbert, senior science fellow with the Center for Arms Control and Non Proliferation’s Chemical and Biological Arms Control Working Group, said sarin “can be stored in loaded munitions for decades if it is properly purified and stabilized.”
“It is certainly possible that the regime could have hidden sarin, as well as other chemicals, in a variety of locations prior to signing on to the Chemical Weapons Convention,” he said. “It is also possible that Syria retained or reconstituted a sarin production capability that could have been used to produce the recently-used sarin.”
