Obama Says U.S. Won't Send Troops to Syria, Kerry Says Military Act Sends Deterring Message to Iran, Hizbullah
U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday he had taken no "final decision" on striking Syria but that the world could not accept the gassing of women and children, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington knows “where the rockets were launched from."
Calling Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons a threat to U.S. national security, Obama said the response would be "narrow" and "limited."
The U.S. president slammed the "incapacity" of the U.N. Security Council to act on Syria, warning the world must not be "paralyzed" on responding to a chemical weapons attack.
"What we have seen so far at least is an incapacity at this point for the Security Council to move forward in the face of a clear violation of international norms," Obama said, as he met Baltic leaders at the White House.
The president said he recognizes the world and the U.S. are war-weary but stressed that the United States has an obligation "as a leader in the world" to hold countries accountable if they violate international norms.
Obama said he has strong preference for multilateral action, but added that he does not "want the world to be paralyzed."
He also stressed that Washington will not send troops for a ground operation in Syria.
"This kind of attack is a challenge to the world," Obama told reporters at the White House.
"We cannot accept a world where women and children and innocent civilians are gassed on a terrible scale," he said, calling the attack a threat to U.S. "national security interests."
"I have said before, and I meant what I said, that the world has an obligation to make sure we maintain the norm against the use of chemical weapons," he said.
Earlier on Friday, Kerry said the expected U.S. military action against Syria would be a "tailored response" to punish President Bashar Assad's regime whom he accused of staging the reported chemical attack near Damascus, noting that Obama will consult with the Congress regarding any move.
Kerry said Obama "has said very clearly that whatever decision he makes in Syria, it will bear no resemblance to Afghanistan, Iraq or even Libya. It will not involve any boots on the ground. It will not be open ended."
“We know where the rockets were launched from and where they landed,” he added, noting that “when the U.N. inspectors finally gained access, that access was restricted and controlled."
“We need to ask what is the risk of doing nothing. This crime against conscience, this crime against humanity ... matters to us ... It matters if nothing is done,” Kerry said, in a speech that acknowledged that Americans at home and U.S. allies abroad are weary of war.
Kerry cited the accusations of the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, France, Turkey and Australia against the Syrian regime concerning the reported chemical attack.
He added: “We will continue talking to the Congress, talking to our allies and most importantly talking to the American people.”
“History will judge us all if we turn a blind eye to dictators using weapons of mass destruction,” he said.
Kerry stressed that Washington remains “committed to have a diplomatic process that can resolve this (Syrian conflict) through negotiations.”
“The world's most heinous weapons must not be used again against the most vulnerable people,” he stressed.
Kerry said the United Nations cannot tell the world anything about the reported chemical attack that the U.S. “doesn't already know.”
He noted that U.N. investigators probing the attack are limited by a mandate to determine if an attack took place, adding that they won't say who is responsible.
"This is the indiscriminate, inconceivable horror of chemical weapons. This is what Assad did to his own people," Kerry said.
"The question is what are we collectively, what are we in the world, going to do about it?" he added.
The secretary of state warned that international failure to take action against Syria would embolden Iran, Hizbullah and North Korea.
"This matter also goes beyond the limits of Syria's borders," he said, in a statement that left little doubt that U.S. military action against Syria was imminent.
"It's about whether Iran, which itself has been a victim of chemical weapons attacks, will now feel emboldened in the absence of action to obtain nuclear weapons. It's about Hizbullah and every other terrorist group that might contemplate the use of weapons of mass destruction," he added.
Meanwhile, a U.S. intelligence report blamed Syria's government for the reported chemical weapons attack with "high confidence" and said it was "highly unlikely" the outrage was a ruse plotted by rebels.
The report said that 1,429 people were killed in the attack, including 426 children, and said the assessment was based on "multiple" streams of intelligence.
"The United States Government assesses with high confidence that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs on August 21, 2013," the report, released by the White House said.
"We further assess that the regime used a nerve agent in the attack."
The report went on to detail casualty figures from the attack on a Damascus suburb on August 21, and said they would likely rise as new intelligence comes in.
"A preliminary U.S. government assessment determined that 1,429 people were killed in the chemical weapons attack, including at least 426 children."
The unclassified assessment, which omitted sourcing and raw intelligence to protect U.S. intelligence assets, also debunked the theory, advanced notably by Russia, that opposition forces could have carried out the attack.
"We assess that the scenario in which the opposition executed the attack on August 21 is highly unlikely."
"The body of information used to make this assessment includes intelligence pertaining to the regime's preparations for this attack and its means of delivery, multiple streams of intelligence about the attack itself and its effect, our post-attack observations, and the differences between the capabilities of the regime and the opposition.
"Our high confidence assessment is the strongest position that the U.S. Intelligence Community can take short of confirmation," it added.
Kerry said the U.S. government had repeatedly assessed the intelligence in the report, to avoid the kind of fiasco that erupted over botched covert material used to justify the Iraq war.
"We will not repeat that moment," he said.
Meanwhile, an aide to Francois Hollande said the French president and Obama are both convinced the Syrian regime used chemical weapons on its own people last week.
The two leaders "share the same certainty that the attack was chemical in nature and that the regime was undoubtedly responsible," the aide said after Obama and Hollande held phone talks Friday.
"Francois Hollande repeated France's determination not to leave these crimes unpunished and felt the same determination on Obama's side," the aide said.
The aide said the two leaders spoke for around 45 minutes and had "reviewed the chemical attack and the proof" that it was carried out by Assad's forces.
Hollande said in an interview with Le Monde newspaper due to be published Saturday that his government wants "firm" action against Assad's regime in retaliation for the attack.
France is poised to become the United States' main ally in the Syria crisis after the British parliament rejected involvement in any military strikes.
Source: Naharnet
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