RSS Feed
September 1st, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Updated
Syria’s opposition has expressed disappointment that US president Barack Obama put on hold military action against the Damascus regime, but said it was confident US lawmakers would green-light a strike.
Mr Obama broke with decades of precedent to announce that he would seek approval from Congress for action against Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons.
This effectively pushed military action back until at least September 9, when US lawmakers return from their summer recess.
The Obama administration says it has reliable intelligence that the regime launched a chemical onslaught that killed 1,429 people, including at least 426 children.
Mr Obama said he was prepared to launch a “targeted” military operation on Syrian targets and insisted that he reserves the right to strike regardless of Congress’s decision.
A White House official said the pause would also allow him time to build international support.
France, which announced its “determination” alongside the US, had said it is ready to deploy its own forces in the operation.
However, French interior minister Manuel Valls said France – a vocal critic of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s regime – would not act alone and will await a decision by the US Congress on whether to launch an attack.
“France cannot go it alone,” Mr Valls told Europe 1 radio.
“We need a coalition.”
Syria’s main opposition bloc says it was “disappointed” with the delay.
“We had a feeling of disappointment,” Syrian National Coalition’s top official Samir Nashar said.
“We were expecting things to be quicker, that a strike would be imminent … but we believe Congress will approve a strike.”
Later in a statement, Syria’s opposition coalition called on the US congress to approve military action and said any intervention should be accompanied with more arms for the rebels.
“Dictatorships like Iran and North Korea are watching closely to see how the free world responds to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people,” the Syrian opposition coalition said in a statement issued in Istanbul.
“If the free world fails to respond to such an outrageous breach of international norms, dictators around the world will be encouraged in their efforts to follow the example set by Assad.
“The Syrian Coalition believes any possible military action should be carried out in conjunction with an effort to arm the Free Syrian Army. This will be vital in restraining Assad and ending the killing.”
Officials said Mr Obama would lobby world powers on the sidelines of the G20 St Petersburg summit this week, while at home the White House was reaching out to lawmakers.
Observers warned that Mr Obama faces the same fate as prime minister David Cameron, who on Thursday lost his own vote on authorising military action in the British parliament.
Iran warns of creating a regional conflict
At least five US warships armed with scores of Tomahawk cruise missiles have converged on the eastern Mediterranean ready to launch precision strikes on Syrian regime targets.
The FBI has meanwhile increased its surveillance of Syrians living in the United States ahead of a possible US attack and US authorities are also warning of possible retaliatory cyberattacks, The New York Times reported.
Syria, meanwhile, said it has its “finger on the trigger” as it braces for what it had formerly feared was an imminent Western strike.
“The Syrian army is fully ready, its finger on the trigger to face any challenge or scenario that they want to carry out,” prime minister Wael al-Halqi said.
And the head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards warned that Western action would trigger reactions beyond the borders of Tehran’s key regional ally.
“The fact that the Americans believe that military intervention will be limited to within Syrian borders is an illusion,” commander Mohammad Ali Jafari said.
Shortly before Mr Obama’s announcement, a team of UN inspectors left Syria after spending four days investigating last week’s alleged chemical attacks on suburbs of Damascus.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said that analysis of samples taken at the site would take up to three weeks.
A UN spokesman promised they would give a fair report after conducting these lab tests, but Washington and its allies insist they already know all they need to know.
More than 100,000 people have died since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011, and 2 million have become refugees, half of them children, according to the United Nations.
AFP
Topics:
unrest-conflict-and-war,
world-politics,
government-and-politics,
syrian-arab-republic,
united-states,
france
First posted
Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-01/syrian-opposition-27disappointed27-us2c-france-put-response-/4927850
Posted in 
