Confident Syria Used Chemicals, U.S. Mulls Action
By SCOTT SHANE and BEN HUBBARD
An Obama aide’s statement that Syria’s promise to allow United Nations
inspectors access to the site of a possible chemical attack was “too
late” appeared to move the United States closer to potential military
action.
Malek Alshemali/Reuters
A rebel in the Syrian city of
Aleppo on Sunday. Activists have said that hundreds of people were
killed in a chemical attack near Damascus on Wednesday.
By SCOTT SHANE and BEN HUBBARD
Published: August 25, 2013
WASHINGTON — Moving a step closer to possible American military action
in Syria, a senior Obama administration official said Sunday that there
was “very little doubt” that President Bashar al-Assad’s military forces
had used chemical weapons against civilians last week and that a Syrian
promise to allow United Nations inspectors access to the site was “too
late to be credible.”
Multimedia
Related
-
Signs of Chemical Attack Detailed by Aid Group (August 25, 2013)
-
Air War in Kosovo Seen as Precedent in Possible Response to Syria Chemical Attack (August 24, 2013)
-
The Lede: French Journalists Previously Reported Chemical Attacks in Damascus Suburbs (August 21, 2013)
-
The Lede: Video Shows Victims of Suspected Syrian Chemical Attack (August 21, 2013)
Hadi Almonajed/Reuters
Activists and medics produced chemical masks in a
Damascus suburb on Friday in response to the attack on Wednesday.
The official, in a written statement, said that “based on the reported
number of victims, reported symptoms of those who were killed or
injured, witness accounts and other facts gathered by open sources, the
U.S. intelligence community, and international partners, there is very
little doubt at this point that a chemical weapon was used by the Syrian
regime against civilians in this incident.”
The statement, released Sunday morning on the condition that the
official not be named, reflected a tougher tone after President Obama’s
meeting at the White House on Saturday with his national security team,
during which advisers discussed options for military action.
While administration officials emphasized that Mr. Obama had not decided
to take action, they said he was determined not to be drawn into a
protracted debate over gaining access for the United Nations
investigators, because of doubts that they could now produce credible
findings.
Officials say that a list of possible targets for a military strike has
been circulating in the White House since late last week. The list,
which the Pentagon originally prepared months ago for Mr. Obama,
includes both chemical-weapons sites and broader military and government
targets, depending on the type of action the president orders. If
strikes are carried out, the targets would probably be hit by cruise
missiles fired from Navy ships.
The president, who warned a year ago that the use of chemical weapons by
Syrian government forces would be a “red line,” has faced criticism
from Congressional Republicans and others for failing to respond more
forcefully to evidence of earlier, smaller-scale chemical attacks. Mr.
Obama, who inherited two costly wars — in Iraq and Afghanistan — has
been extremely reluctant to commit American military forces, even in the
form of missile strikes, to another tangled conflict in the Middle
East.
But on Sunday, the White House seemed to take a harder line, dismissing
the Syrian promise of possible access by United Nations inspectors.
Mr. Obama spoke on Sunday with the French president, François Hollande,
and the White House said they had expressed “grave concern” about the
reported Syrian chemical attack and “discussed possible responses by the
international community.” Mr. Obama spoke on Saturday to the British
prime minister, David Cameron.
Those discussions, officials said, were meant to gauge whether Britain
and France are on the same page as the United States, given that they
could be part of a coalition carrying out strikes against Syria.
While officials said the United States would still hold consultations at
the United Nations, they made it clear that the United Nations was not
the only avenue for taking action against Syria.
Early on Sunday, the White House said Syrian officials had refused to
let the inspectors see the site of the attack. But Syrian television
later reported an agreement to allow access beginning on Monday. The
administration official who released the statement said the offer, even
if sincere, might be meaningless because of the time that had already
passed since the attack.
“The evidence available has been significantly corrupted as a result of
the regime’s persistent shelling and other intentional actions over the
last five days,” the official said.
The official, however, did not suggest that Mr. Obama had decided to
take action. “We are continuing to assess the facts so the president can
make an informed decision about how to respond to this indiscriminate
use of chemical weapons,” the official said.
But by labeling as “indiscriminate” the attack on Wednesday in a
Damascus suburb, which reportedly killed hundreds of civilians, the
official suggested that the United States viewed the latest assault as
different from the smaller suspected chemical attacks that had not
provoked American military action.
The Syrian government has denied using chemical weapons as part of a
civil war that has left more than 100,000 people dead. On Saturday it
said its soldiers had found chemical supplies in areas seized from rebel
forces. Russia, an ally of the Syrian government, accused the rebels of
using the weapons, but few analysts believe they have the supplies or
ability to do so.
A spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Aleksandr K. Lukashevich,
said that those who advocated an armed response to any chemical weapons
attack — without citing the United States or other countries — were
prejudging the results of the United Nations inspections.
“In these conditions, we again resolutely call on all those who are
trying to impose the results of the U.N. investigations and who say that
armed actions against Syria is possible to show common sense and avoid
tragic mistakes,” Mr. Lukashevich said in a statement released Sunday
evening on the ministry’s Web site.
But Secretary of State John Kerry called Foreign Minister Sergey V.
Lavrov of Russia on Sunday to outline the Obama administration’s stance
on Syria.
Mr. Kerry told his Russian counterpart that there was little doubt that
the Assad government had used chemical weapons against civilians last
week and the decision to allow United Nations inspectors to visit the
site of the attack had come too late.
Mr. Kerry told Mr. Lavrov “that if the Syrian regime wanted to prove to
the world that it had not used chemical weapons in this incident, it
would have stopped shelling the area and granted immediate access five
days ago,” a senior State Department official said.
Syria warned that any American military action would “create a ball of
fire that will inflame the Middle East,” according to The Associated
Press. And Iranian state news media quoted the Tehran government as
saying that any intervention by Washington would have severe
consequences.
Complicating the task of the United Nations team is the fact that the
attack on Wednesday took place in an area that remains behind rebel
lines. While activists reached in the area said they would welcome the
team, many are deeply skeptical that its work will result in action
against Mr. Assad’s government. The team’s original mandate was limited
to finding whether chemical weapons had been used, not to decide who has
used them.
Israel sharpened its message on Sunday, suggesting that the use of such
weapons in the region should not go without a response.
“This situation must not be allowed to continue,” Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said, referring to the Syrian civilians “who were so
brutally attacked by weapons of mass destruction.”
“The most dangerous regimes in the world must not be allowed to possess
the most dangerous weapons in the world,” he said.
Some Israelis have argued that international intervention in Syria would
distract the world from the crucial effort to prevent a nuclear Iran.
But there is a growing sense among Israelis that Syria is now a test of
how the world might respond to Iran as it approaches the ability to make
a nuclear weapon.
“Assad’s regime has become a full Iranian client, and Syria has become Iran’s testing ground,” Mr. Netanyahu added.
In Washington, several lawmakers said Sunday that they now expected
limited military action to punish Syria or deter chemical attacks.
But lawmakers who appeared on Sunday talks show said it would be
reckless to insert ground troops into a war in a region already in
turmoil, and there was a general call for any action to be taken under
the broadest possible international auspices.
“I hope the president, as soon as we get back to Washington, will ask
for authorization from Congress to do something in a very surgical and
proportional way,” Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the top Republican
on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
But Representative Eliot Engel of New York, the ranking Democrat on the
House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the situation might be too urgent
to wait for Congress, which does not return from its summer recess until
Sept. 9.
On Saturday, Doctors Without Borders, an international aid group, said
that on the morning of the reported attack, medical centers it supported
near the site received about 3,600 patients showing symptoms consistent
with exposure to toxic nerve agents. Of those, 355 died, the group
said.
Syrian Kurds Flee to Northern Iraq
Authorities and aid groups in northern Iraq scramble to accommodate the
thousands of Syrian Kurds seeking shelter from the conflict in Syria.
COPY http://www.nytimes.com/
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário