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Obama: U.S. will not rush into a costly Syria entanglement
Asked about his comment – a year to the day before the poison fumes hit sleeping residents of rebel-held Damascus suburbs – that chemical weapons would be a red line for the United States, he replied: “If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it.”
Russia and China have vetoed United Nations Security Council moves against Assad in the past and oppose military action.
International powers, including Moscow, have urged Assad to cooperate with a U.N. inspection team which arrived on Sunday to pursue earlier allegations of chemical weapons attacks and to give them access to affected areas before evidence deteriorates.
However, there was no public response from the Syrian government, whose forces have been pounding the region for days, making any mission by the international experts perilous, as well as potentially destroying evidence. Syria denies being responsible and has in the past accused rebels of using gas.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is despatching a top official to lobby Assad, said: “I can think of no good reason why any party, either government or opposition forces – would decline this opportunity to get to the truth of the matter.”
Russia, Assad’s main arms supplier, said the opposition was preventing the objective investigation of what happened. Britain said it now believed Assad’s forces carried out the attack.
Opposition activists said they had been in contact with the specialist U.N. team in Damascus and had sent tissue samples with couriers seeking to slip across from the Ghouta region into the government-held center to deliver them to the inspectors.
