Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday demanded the world
produce evidence his forces used chemical weapons, calling the
region a “powder keg” and warning an attack against him would
ignite a regional war.  “Nobody knows what will happen” if the
US or other countries attack Syria,” Assad said in an interview
with the French paper Le Figaro. “Everyone will lose control of
the situation when the powder keg explodes. Chaos and extremism
will spread… There is a risk of regional war.”  Assad told the
paper that Western claims of intelligence information ostensibly
proving the regime’s use of chemical weapons, in an attack near
Damascus August 21 that killed hundreds, were spurious.  “Anyone
who accuses [the use of gas] must provide evidence,” the
president said, adding he had asked the US and France to prove
their claims, but Presidents “[Barack] Obama and [Francois]
Hollande were unable to.”  “Obama is weak,” Assad charged. “If
Obama was strong, he would have said publicly: ‘We have no
evidence of the use of che