Obama to drop threat of force against Syria in UN resolution

Senior officials within the administration of US President Barack Obama have said the US President will not insist on a United Nations Security Council resolution threatening Syria with the use of force.
Obama’s decision not to push for a UN Security Council resolution threatening Syria with military action came after a second day of negotiations between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva, unnamed White House officials told The New York Times.

On Thursday and Friday, Kerry and Lavrov discussed a Russian proposal for putting Syria’s chemical weapons under the control of the UN, a proposal that was welcomed by the Syrian government, and will continue their negotiations for a third day on Saturday.

After Russia offered its diplomatic proposal on Monday, the US, France, and Britain pushed for the authorization to use military force. However, Moscow rejected a proposed UN resolution announced by France, arguing the Russian diplomatic proposal would work only if Washington and its allies “tell us they’re giving up their plan to use force against Syria.”

The US has accused the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of using chemical weapons in an attack near capital Damascus on August 21.

The Syrian government has categorically rejected the accusations and even Obama’s top aide, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, has admitted that Washington’s claims are based on a “common-sense test” not any “irrefutable” evidence.

Moreover, a classified document from the US intelligence community’s National Ground Intelligence Center obtained by WND has shown the US military knew that foreign-backed militants in Syria had sarin gas and used it in an attack on civilians and Syrian government forces last March.

The leaked document suggests, former director of the US Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare Yossef Bodansky indicated, that the alleged chemical attack of August 21 near Damascus was perpetrated by the militants to provoke a US military intervention in the Middle Eastern country.

Obama called on US lawmakers this week to delay a vote on his call for military action against Syria in order to give Russia’s diplomatic proposal a chance to play out.

On Thursday, the Syrian ambassador to the UN said his country became a full member of the international treaty prohibiting chemical weapons.

Nevertheless, US military leaders announced Thursday that two US warships deployed in the coastal waters near Syria would stay there beyond their scheduled deployments should the Obama administration give the green light to launching unilateral military strikes against Syria.

Recent polls have revealed a growing opposition to military action against Syria both within the US military and America’s war-weary public.

An online survey conducted by the Military Times Monday and Tuesday has found that almost 75 percent of active-duty US troops oppose military strikes against Syria. A Reuters-Ipsos poll released on Monday also showed that 63 percent of Americans oppose attacking Syria.

Meanwhile, in an op-ed published by The New York Times on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said a possible US attack on Syria “is unacceptable under the United Nations Charter and would constitute an act of aggression.”

“The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. Under current international law, force is permitted only in self-defense or by the decision of the Security Council,” Putin added.