Obama not yet decided on military action in Syria: US official

"The president has not made a decision to undertake military action," says official.


Reuters August 27, 2013
Western powers have told the Syrian opposition to expect a strike against Assad's forces within days, sources who attended a meeting between envoys and the Syrian National Coalition in Istanbul told Reuters earlier on Tuesday. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has not yet made a decision to order military strikes against the Syrian government in response to last week's alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus, a senior administration official said on Tuesday.

The assertion by the US official, which echoed the White House's comments on Monday, came amid mounting signs that Washington and its allies are edging toward a limited use of force against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's loyalists.

Western powers have told the Syrian opposition to expect a strike against Assad's forces within days, sources who attended a meeting between envoys and the Syrian National Coalition in Istanbul told Reuters earlier on Tuesday.

"The president has not made a decision to undertake military
action," the US official in Washington told Reuters.

COMMENTS (4)

unbelievable | 11 years ago | Reply

@Visionist:

We are living in a fabricated world. Nothing is real here.

Casualties are undeniable - guess that makes it "real". Assad has attacked his own citizens using planes (bombs), tanks, artillery and is known to have a large supply of chemical weapons. Of course the target of the attack just happened to be in an area that Assad troops have been trying to retake for a long time. Seems like most of anecdotal evidence indicates that Assad would rather stay in power than worry about using WMD against his own people - not much different that Saddam.

Parvez | 11 years ago | Reply

Obama will do what KSA wants but first the KSA will have to agree to buy a couple of billion dollars worth of American arms.........but of course it will all be orchestrated carefully.

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