Syria crisis: ‘World can’t accept gassing of civilians’

Obama says no ‘final decision’ taken on striking Syria; any military action would be ‘limited and tailored’.

WASHINGTON:

US President Barack Obama said on Friday he had taken no “final decision” on striking Syria but that the world could not accept the gassing of women and children.

Calling Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons a threat to US national security, Obama said the response would be “narrow” and “limited.”

At the same time, the US president slammed the “incapacity” of the UN Security Council to act on Syria and warned the world must not be “paralysed” 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.

Secretary of State John Kerry also made clear that the United States would punish Syrian President Bashar al Assad for the ‘brutal and flagrant’ chemical weapons attack that it says killed more than 1,400 people in Damascus last week. At the same time, he stressed that any action would be ‘limited and tailored’ to punishing the Syrian strongman only.

In a statement delivered at the US State Department, Kerry said it was essential not to let Syria get away with the attack, partly as a sign to those who might consider using chemical weapons in the future. He added the US was joined by allies including France, “our oldest ally,” in its determination to act.

“It matters here if nothing is done,” he said, adding that if a “thug and a murderer like Bashar al-Assad can gas thousands of his own people with impunity, it would be an example to others.”

Kerry laid out a raft of evidence he said showed Assad’s forces were behind the attack, and the US government released an unclassified intelligence report at the same time including many of the details.

The report said the August 21 attack killed 1,429 Syrian civilians, including 426 children. The intelligence gathered for the US report included an intercepted communication by a senior official intimately familiar with the August 21 attack as well as other intelligence from people’s accounts and intercepted messages, the four-page report said.

France said on Friday it still backed military action to punish Assad’s government for the attack despite a British parliamentary vote against a military strike.

Any military strike, however, looks unlikely at least until UN weapons inspectors leave Syria on Saturday.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2013.