Obama 'Sure Syria Behind Attack'
29 Aug 2013
US President Barack Obama
BBC
US President Barack Obama says the US has concluded that the Syrian government carried out a chemical weapons attacks near Damascus.
He said the use of chemical weapons affected US national interests and that sending a "shot across the bows" could have a positive impact on Syria's war.
But in the interview with PBS, he said he had not yet made a decision about whether to intervene militarily.
His comments follow a day of behind-the-scenes wrangling at the UN.
The UK had been pushing for permanent members of the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution which would have authorised measures to protect civilians in Syria.
But Syrian ally Russia refused to agree to the resolution and the meeting produced no end to the diplomatic stalemate which has long characterised the UN position on Syria.
The US State Department criticised "Russian intransigence" and said it could not allow diplomatic paralysis to serve as a shield for the Syrian leadership.
Critics have questioned what purpose a limited strike on Syria could serve, but Obama said it would send the government of Bashar al-Assad "a pretty strong signal that it better not [use chemical weapons] again".
The US has yet to produce the intelligence it says shows Assad's government is guilty of using chemical weapons, and UN weapons inspectors are still investigating inside Syria.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has said they need four more days to complete their investigations and has appealed for the team to be "given time to do its job".
Syria denies using chemical weapons and blames opposition fighters for the attack on 21 August, which reportedly killed hundreds of people near Damascus.
It accused the West of "inventing" excuses to launch a strike.
In a sign of growing fears about an impending attack among Syrians, the Associated Press quoted Lebanese officials as saying at least 6,000 Syrians crossed into Lebanon in a 24-hour period through the main Masnaa crossing - compared to a normal daily tally of between 500 and 1,000 refugees.
"Isn't it enough, all the violence and fighting that we already have in the country, now America wants to bomb us, too?" one 45-year-old woman, entering Lebanon with her five children, told AP.
In Damascus senior military commanders are reportedly staying away from buildings thought likely to be targeted. You "could hear a pin drop" at one of them, a local resident said.
President Obama told the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) that the US had concluded that the Syrian government carried out the chemical weapons attack.
"There need to be international consequences, so we are consulting with our allies," he said.
There was "a prospect that chemical weapons could be directed at us - and we want to make sure that doesn't happen".
But Obama said he had come to no final decision on what course to take.
The BBC's David Willis in Washington says this is the most unequivocal sign that Obama has given that he believes the Syrian government is guilty of deploying chemical weapons.
SOURCE: THISDAY
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