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Syria: Obama considering unilateral response
U.S. President Barack Obama is preparing for the possibility of launching unilateral American military action against Syria within days, White House aides say.
Despite roadblocks in forming an international coalition, including the stunning decision by the British Parliament on Thursday to keep the U.K. on the sidelines in any international military action, Obama appeared undeterred and advisers said he would be willing to retaliate against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on his own.
Talk of international military action against Syria comes as United Nations inspectors are conducting what’s expected to be their final day of investigations into the alleged use of chemicals in a Damascus-area attack last week. The team has spent the past week touring rebel-controlled areas to collect evidence of a suspected poison gas attack on opposition fighters on the outskirts of the capital.
On Friday, UN inspectors toured a government-held area, visiting troops at the Yousef al-Azma military hospital. The Assad regime claims that patients were affected by chemical munitions released by the rebels.
Western powers such as Britain, France and the U.S. allege that only the side capable of unleashing such chemical munitions is the government, a charge that Assad denies.
The UN team is due to fly out by Saturday and then immediately present their findings to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
But the U.S. has already drawn its own conclusions, blaming Assad for last week’s alleged chemical assault, and are now weighing possible military actions.
