UN chemical weapons experts wearing gas masks carry samples collected from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack while escorted by Free Syrian Army fighters in the Ain Tarma neighbourhood of Damascus.
LONDON: Allied air strikes against the Syrian government over the alleged use of chemical weapons could be delayed until next week in the face of strong opposition in the UK parliament to British involvement in immediate military action.
Prime Minister, David Cameron, conceded that MPs would be given a second vote to approve military action to defuse a parliamentary revolt, ahead of a Commons debate today. Sources said the US, which had planned to launch strikes by the weekend, is prepared to revive a back-up plan to delay the strikes until Tuesday.
As UN chief Ban Ki-moon appealed for unity among world powers and sought more time for the inspectors to complete their probe in Syria, the US and its European and Middle East allies said their minds were made up and that President Bashar Al Assad must face retribution. Ban’s special envoy to Syria, Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, said “international law is clear” in requiring UN Security Council authorisation for any military action.
The US and UK will today publish a joint summary of the intelligence they say points towards the Assad regime’s responsibility for the poison gas attack of August 21 in Ghouta that killed 1,300 people.
London undertook to return to the Security Council in a renewed effort to secure a UN mandate for military action after Russia blocked a British resolution at an informal meeting in New York. But the US State Department insisted it saw “no avenue forward” at the UN for finding a global consensus for armed action, because of Russian support for Assad’s regime. The US and its allies say a UN veto will not stop them. The US said it saw no need to wait for a report by UN inspectors. “We are going to make our own decisions on our own timelines about our response,” the State Department said. However, the UK is committed to wait for the UN report.
Syria warned of “grave consequences” if US-led military action goes ahead. In Jeddah, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation blamed Syria for the chemical attacks and called for “decisive action in response”. Turkey put its forces on alert. Israel mobilised some army reservists and bolstered defences against missile strikes from Syria or Lebanon. Nato said evidence pointed to Assad’s forces having used gas.
Guardian News/Agencies
