Rebels in Syria told West could attack ‘in days’
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Western powers could attack Syria within days, envoys from the United States and its allies have told rebels fighting President Bashar Assad, sources who attended the meeting said yesterday.
US forces in the region are “ready to go,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said, as Washington and its European and Middle Eastern partners honed plans to punish Assad for a major poison gas attack last week that killed hundreds of civilians.
Asked if US forces were ready to strike Syria just “like that,” Hagel told the BBC: “We are ready to go, like that.”
He added: “We have moved assets in place to be able to fulfil and comply with whatever option the president wishes to take.”
The Washington Post cited senior US administration officials as saying such action would probably last no more than two days and involve missiles or long-range bombers, striking military targets not directly linked to Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal.
Hagel said the US would have intelligence to present “very shortly” about last week’s mass poisoning.
But he noted after calls with his British and French counterparts that there was little doubt among US allies that “the most base international humanitarian standard was violated.”
Several sources who attended the meeting in Istanbul on Monday between Syrian opposition leaders and diplomats from Washington and other governments said the rebels were told to expect military action and to get ready to negotiate a peace.
“The opposition was told in clear terms that action to deter further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime could come as early as in the next few days, and that they should still prepare for peace talks at Geneva,” one source said.
Ahmad Jarba, president of the Syrian National Coalition, met envoys from 11 states in the Friends of Syria group, including Robert Ford, the US ambassador to Syria, at an Istanbul hotel.
United Nations chemical weapons investigators, who finally crossed the frontline to take samples on Monday, have put off a second trip to rebel-held suburbs of Damascus.
Washington said it already held Assad responsible for a “moral obscenity” and President Barack Obama would hold him to account for it.
British Prime Minister David Cameron called parliament back from its summer recess for a session on Syria tomorrow.
Limited to air strikes
He and Obama, as well as French President Francois Hollande, face tough questions about how an intervention, likely to be limited to air strikes, will end — and whether they risk handing power to anti-Western Islamist rebels.
Hollande said France stood ready to punish the perpetrators of the chemical attack in Damascus last week and would increase military support to the Syrian opposition.
In an indication of support from Arab states, the Arab League issued a statement holding Assad’s government responsible for the attack.
In Saudi Arabia, the rebels’ leading regional sponsor, Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal called for “a decisive and serious stand by the international community to stop the humanitarian tragedy of the Syrian people.”
Turkey, Syria’s neighbor and part of the US-led NATO military pact, called the gas attack a “crime against humanity” that demanded international reaction.
The continued presence of UN experts in Damascus may be a factor holding back military action. A UN statement said they had put off a second visit until today to prepare better.
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