The Syrian government is accusing Western leaders of trying to drum up support for foreign military intervention by invoking unfounded fears of chemical weapons. This week President Obama warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against the use of chemical weapons, vowing unspecified consequences. Speaking on Wednesday to NATO leaders in Brussels, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed suit.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “Our concerns are that an increasingly desperate Assad regime might turn to chemical weapons or might lose control of them to one of the many groups that are now operating within Syria. And so, as part of the absolute unity that we all have on this issue, we have sent an unmistakable message that this would cross a red line and those responsible would be held to account.”

In response to the threats, Assad’s regime has insisted it will not use chemical weapons against its own people, calling assertions to the contrary a “pretext for intervention.”