Syria says US action could ‘inflame the Middle East’
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Syria has warned the United States against any military action over a suspected chemical weapons attack in its civil war, saying it would “create a ball of fire that will inflame the Middle East.”
Iran also said yesterday Washington should not cross the “red line” on Syria, where doctors said hundreds were killed in a poison gas attack.
US President Barack Obama met his top military and national security advisers on Saturday to debate options and US naval forces have been repositioned in the Mediterranean to give him the option of an armed strike. The US Navy has sent a fourth warship armed with ballistic missiles into the eastern Mediterranean Sea, closer to Syria.
“US military intervention will create a very serious fallout and a ball of fire that will inflame the Middle East,” Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoabi said.
The white House declined to list what options were discussed on Saturday and said the US was still gathering details about the attack.
“President Obama has asked the defense department to prepare options for all contingencies,” US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters in Malaysia as he began a week-long trip to Asia. “We have done that and we are prepared to exercise whatever option — if he decides to employ one of those options.”
A US senior official said the US has little doubt the Syrian government used chemical weapons against civilians last week.
“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 US intelligence community, and international partners, there is very little doubt that a chemical weapon was used by the Syrian regime against civilians in this incident,” the official said yesterday.
Call for limited action
Senior US lawmakers yesterday called for limited US military action in response to the alleged chemical weapons attack.
“I certainly would do cruise missile strikes,” said Eliot Engel, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Senator Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told Fox News he hoped Obama would “respond in a surgical way.”
Obama authorized sending US weapons to Syrian rebels in June but shipments were delayed due to fears radical Islamist groups in the opposition could gain further ground in Syria and become a threat to the West.
The head of the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front has pledged to target communities from Syria’s Alawite faith, followed by President Bashar Assad, with rockets in revenge for last Wednesday’s incident, according to a recording published on YouTube.
“For every chemical rocket that had fallen on our people in Damascus, one of their villages will, by the will of God, pay for it,” Abu Mohammad al-Golani said.
Massoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, said: “America knows the limitation of the red line of the Syrian front and any crossing of Syria’s red line will have severe consequences for the White House.”
Major world powers have urged the Syrian leader to cooperate with UN inspectors. But Russia said the rebels were impeding an inquiry and that Assad would have no interest in using poison gas.
Opposition sources said yesterday that 400 tons of arms had been sent into Syria from Turkey to boost insurgent capabilities following the chemical strike.
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