Tag Archives: obama
Obama gears up for all-out push on Syria
Obama gears up for all-out push on Syria (AFP) / 9 September 2013 Washington deepened its diplomatic offensive at home and abroad on Sunday as President Barack Obama braced for a key week in his push to persuade skeptical Americans to back strikes against the Syrian regime. Lawmakers returning on Monday from their summer break are set to begin debate on whether to approve limited US military action in Syria, with a Senate vote possibly coming as early as Wednesday. Obama will blitz US networks on Monday evening before addressing the American people from the Oval Office on Tuesday aiming to lay out the case to deepen US involvement in a two-year-old war that has claimed more than 100,000 lives. President Bashar Al Assad was also to take to the US airwaves to deny he ordered a suspected chemical attack on his people last month, which has shocked the world and galvanised the Obama administration into preparing for its first military foray into the brutal conflict. In a rare interview with a US network, Assad insisted he was not behind the August 21 gas attack on a Damascus suburb, and issued a veiled warning to the American people not to become militarily involved in the rebellion against him that erupted in March 2011. The long-time Syrian leader warned that as his country prepares “as best we can” for US military action, there could be a bitter consequences. “There’s no evidence that I used chemical weapons against my own people,” he reportedly told CBS television, in the interview to be aired on Monday. Assad said he “had a message to the American people that it had not been a good experience for them to get involved in the Middle East in wars and conflicts.” He “suggested that there would be, among people that are aligned with him, some kind of retaliation if a strike was made,” veteran CBS correspondent Charlie Rose told CBS. After talks with Arab League leaders in Paris, US Secretary of State John Kerry said: “All of us agree, not one dissenter, that Assad’s deplorable use of chemical weapons… crosses an international global red line.” Kerry, who was dispatched by Obama to shore up support abroad, said a number of Arab countries, were willing to sign a statement agreed by 12 of the G20 countries last week calling for a “strong” reaction to the alleged attack. Asked about Assad’s denial, Kerry told journalists traveling with him on his next stop in London that “the evidence speaks for itself.” “Today we discussed the possible and necessary measures that can be taken,” he said earlier, adding Saudi Arabia was among those who had signed on. While a resolution for a military strike is likely to pass the Senate controlled by Obama’s Democrats, according to a Washington Post survey some 224 of the current 433 members of the Republican dominated House were either “no” or “leaning no” on military action as of Friday. A large number, 184, were undecided, with just 25 backing a strike. A top White House official said on Sunday the Obama administration is planning “for every contingency” in case of any fallout from US military strikes. “We have to obviously be very careful and very targeted and very limited in our engagement so we do not get dragged into the middle of this. And then there’s obviously risk of reaction and retaliation against our friends,” White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said on CNN. He urged hesitant lawmakers to watch graphic videos released over the weekend, said to be of the August attack, showing corpses as well as dying people, including children, writhing in pain and apparently foaming at the mouth and vomiting. The Los Angeles Times reported meanwhile that the Pentagon was preparing for three days of attacks on Syria, longer than originally planned. War planners now aim to unleash a heavy barrage of missile strikes to be followed swiftly by additional attacks on targets that may have been missed or remain standing after the initial launch, the newspaper cited officials as saying. A US defense official said the scale and purpose of the operation against Syria has not changed in recent weeks, although US forces would adjust as needed. “We will continue to review our targeting and targeting options as the Syrian government adapts over time,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. On the ground, Syrian rebels, including the Al-Nusra Front, were said to have taken control of the historic Christian town of Maalula, north of Damascus. And an Italian journalist and a Belgian national who had both been kidnapped in early April were released and on a plane flying to Italy, the Italian government said. Continue reading
Top US Republicans back Syria strike
Obama wins key backing for military action in Syria (Reuters) / 4 September 2013 US President Barack Obama won the backing of two top Republicans in Congress in his call for limited US strikes on Syria to punish President Bashar Al Assad for his suspected use of chemical weapons against civilians. Speaking after the United Nations said 2 million Syrians had fled a conflict that posed the greatest threat to world peace since the Vietnam war, Obama said the United States also has a broader plan to help rebels defeat Assad’s forces. In remarks that appeared to question the legality of US plans to strike Syria without UN backing, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the use of force is only legal when it is in self-defence or with UN Security Council authorisation. He said that if UN inspectors confirm the use of chemical weapons in Syria, the Security Council, which has long been deadlocked on the 2-1/2-year Syrian civil war, should overcome its differences and take action. Having startled friends and foes alike in the Middle East by delaying a punitive attack on Assad until Congress reconvenes and agrees, Obama met congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday to urge a prompt decision and assure them it did not mean another long war like Iraq or Afghanistan. John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor both pledged their support for military action after the meeting. Votes are expected to be held in the US Senate and House next week, with the Republican-led House presenting the tougher challenge for Obama. The Republican House leadership has indicated the votes will be “conscience votes,” meaning they will not seek to influence members’ votes on party lines. All the same, it would have been a big blow to Obama if he had not secured the backing of the top two Republicans. “I believe that my colleagues should support this call for action,” Boehner told reporters. The president said strikes aimed at punishing the use of chemical weapons would hurt Assad’s forces while other US action would bolster his opponents – though the White House has insisted it is not seeking “regime change.” “What we are envisioning is something limited. It is something proportional. It will degrade Assad’s capabilities,” Obama said. “At the same time we have a broader strategy that will allow us to upgrade the capabilities of the opposition.” Assad denies deploying poison gas that killed hundreds of civilians last month. The Syrian opposition, which on Tuesday said a forensic scientist had defected to the rebel side bringing evidence of Assad forces’ use of sarin gas in March, has appealed to Western allies to send them weapons and use their air power to end a war that has killed more than 100,000 and made millions homeless. The presence in rebel ranks of Islamist militants, some of them close to Al Qaeda, has made Western leaders wary, while at the same time the undoubted – and apparently accelerating – human cost of the conflict has brought pressure to intervene. The chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee said on Tuesday he was confident after talking with Obama that the United States would step up its support for “vetted” elements of the Syrian opposition. Senator Carl Levin said he urged the president, a fellow Democrat, to arm the Syrian rebels a day after two influential Republican senators, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, sought similar assurances from Obama. Levin said he told the White House that the United States should provide rebels with arms such as anti-tank weapons “which cannot be turned on us.” Top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi also voiced support for military strikes after meeting Obama on Tuesday, but Obama will still have to persuade some lawmakers, including Democrats, who have said they are concerned the president’s draft resolution could be too open-ended and allow possible use of ground troops or eventual attacks on other countries. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel took the administration’s message to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday. Kerry said the world was watching to see what the United States would do. “They want to know if America will rise to this moment and make a difference,” he told senators at the hearing. After two and a half years of war, nearly one Syrian in three has been driven from home by violence and fear. The UN refugee agency UNHCR said there had been a near tenfold increase over the past 12 months in the rate of refugees crossing Syria’s borders into Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon – to a daily average of nearly 5,000 men, women and children. This has pushed the total living abroad above 2 million. That represents some 10 per cent of Syria’s population, the UNHCR said. With a further 4.25 million estimated to have been displaced but still resident inside the country, close to a third of all Syrians are living away from their original homes. Comparing the figures to the peak of Afghanistan’s refugee crisis two decades ago, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, said: “Syria has become the great tragedy of this century – a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history.” Speaking of the acceleration in the crisis, he said: “What is appalling is that the first million fled Syria in two years. “The second million fled Syria in six months,” Guterres said. “The risks for global peace and security that the present Syria crisis represents, I’m sure, are not smaller than what we have witnessed in any other crisis that we have had since the Vietnam war,” said Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister. Russia, backed by China, has used its veto power in the UN Security Council three times to block resolutions condemning Assad’s government and threatening it with sanctions. Assad, like Russia, blames the rebels for the August 21 gas attack. Obama has said he is “comfortable going forward without the approval of a United Nations Security Council that so far has been completely paralysed and unwilling to hold Assad accountable.” Ban questioned whether the use of force to deter Syria or other countries from deploying chemical arms in the future could do more harm than good. In an interview in Tuesday’s Le Figaro , Assad told the Paris newspaper: “Everybody will lose control of the situation when the powder keg blows. There is a risk of a regional war.” The rebels have been struggling to hold ground in recent months, let alone advance. According to one opposition report, government forces took the strategic northwestern town of Ariha on Tuesday, though others said the battle was not over. Continue reading
Obama should strike Syria, says diplomat
Obama should strike Syria, says diplomat Sarah Young and Patrick Michael (Interview) / 4 September 2013 TWO FLIP FLOPS in as many days, one on each side of the Atlantic, demonstrate both the complexity and divisiveness of the Syrian situation, but one former ambassador in the region is admant a US show of force will – and should – take place. Last Thursday, the House of Commons voted down the UK Government’s plan to join the US in launching air strikes against Syrian targets as punishment for using chemical weapons. And then, on Friday night, President Obama changed his mind on launching air strikes without clear Congressional approval. For Obama this is an extraordinary climbdown. All indications were that an attack was imminent. Several cruise missile-equipped US destroyers were deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean just off the Syrian coast. Secretary of State John Kerry, who had earlier confidently laid out the case for an attack, seemed to dither through the Sunday morning US talk shows as he groped to explain what had happened. However, in an exclusive interview with Khaleej Times , Adam Ereli, former US ambassador to Bahrain from 2007-2011, said he still expected force would be used – and he did not believe UN approval was needed, despite the fact international law states one state may not unilaterally attack another state except in self-defence, even when that state violates the 1925 Geneva protocol prohibiting the use of chemical weapons. “I expect the United States will take action — perhaps not as soon as some would like, but force will be used,” Ereli said. “The use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime against its own people demands a military response. The United States cannot let this atrocity go unpunished. To do so would embolden the enemies of peace in the region.” A punitive strike was justified given Syria had violated the Chemical Weapons Convention, he said, citing similar past action from the international community against Slobodan Milosevic in Bosnia and Kosovo as an example. In fact, if the international community had responded forcefully “the first time” these weapons were used, he did not think the August 21 attacks would have taken place, Ereli added. “If we do not punish Assad now, he will use chemical weapons again. Also, this is not just about Syria. Iran is supporting the Assad regime. They are providing it money and weapons and fighters. If ruthless dictators are allowed to use chemical weapons without consequences, the whole region is in danger. The risks of doing nothing are far greater than the risks of taking action.” He said the results of the UN report justified a response – given “UN inspectors were able to get hair, soil and other physical samples that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt… the Syrian army used sarin gas to kill innocent women and children.” “Assad is like a school-yard bully. He beats up kids who are weaker than him. It’s time we give him a bloody nose, and he’ll back off.” President Obama said on August 31 he would seek Congressional approval for military action, following concern from both liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans that any strikes without this would violate the Constitution. However, the Guardian reported yesterday [Monday] Kerry maintaining the US had the right to strike with or without this approval, despite refusing to give details on where America was sourcing its evidence of the use of sarin gas from, other than saying it did not come from the UN. Ereli agreed, saying Obama should “strike Syria anyway”. “A limited strike, which means launching cruise missiles against Syrian military targets [including military and army bases, intelligence headquarters, and defense ministries], does not put US forces at risk. It is not expensive and will send a strong message to Assad and his supporters in Moscow and Tehran that they don’t have a free hand in Syria.” America’s “friends in the region” should be able to count on the United States to take action and protect them, unlike Russia, China and Iran who “want(ed) to protect their investments in Syria”, he said. Ereli said he “did not expect” US forces to “strike chemical weapons depots or other targets that could cause widespread civilian casualties”, and any rise in oil prices or hits to economies would be “temporary”. Diplomatic talks were no longer an option “given all efforts to negotiate a political transition had failed”, however that did not mean giving up on a negotiated solution in the long-term. A no-fly zone, which could restrict the delivery of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), also did not make sense, given most attacks on civilians had come from ground forces, Syrian air power was not a “big factor”, and the American people did not want to see US forces deployed, he added. However, he admitted that the question of ‘what happens next’ remained a tricky one. “We learned in Iraq that removing Saddam Hussein was necessary but not sufficient. While Iraq is definitely better off now than it was before 2003, we must be careful not to repeat the mistakes of the past.” Finding a successor and preventing the kind of sectarian violence “sure to follow” would require a level of international coordination and cooperation that had not been seen to date, he said. sarah@khaleejtimes. com patrick@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
