US-Russia spat over military strike remains unchanged
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US President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin failed yesterday to end their bitter dispute over US plans for military action in Syria, as half of the G20 called for a “strong” response to a chemical weapons attack blamed on the government.
The United States signaled that it has given up on securing Moscow’s support at the UN on the crisis, as Putin reiterated a warning that it would be “outside the law” to attack without the UN’s blessing.
“We spoke sitting down... it was a constructive, meaningful, cordial conversation,” Putin said after his previously unscheduled talks with Obama. “Each of us kept with our own opinion,” he said.
The split among leaders of the world’s top emerging and developed countries over the issue was symbolized in a statement supported by 11 states at the G20 calling for a “strong international response” to the chemical attack.
Without specifying military action, it said the response would “send a clear message that this kind of atrocity can never be repeated.”
The signatories included key US allies Britain, France and Saudi Arabia.
Obama argued at the end of the G20 summit in Russia that the world cannot “stand idly by” after the chemical weapons attack outside Damascus last month which the US claims was launched by President Bashar Assad’s government.
The Russian foreign ministry meanwhile yesterday strongly warned the United States against targeting Syria’s chemical arsenal in any attacks.
Putin and Obama spoke for about half an hour on the sidelines of the summit, but neither managed to change the other’s mind on Syria.
“He (Obama) disagrees with my arguments, I disagree with his arguments, but we do hear, and we try to analyze,” Putin said.
Obama said he would prefer to have an international mandate for the strikes, but that Washington should not be paralyzed by a refusal on the part of some countries to act. “If we’re not acting, what does that say?”
During a dinner on Thursday, leaders, including Obama, presented their positions on the Syria crisis which only confirmed the extent of global divisions on the issue, participants said yesterday.
Putin said that a majority of countries at the G20 appeared to be supporting his position.
“You said views divided 50-50, that is not quite right,” Putin said in answer to a journalist’s question, listing only the United States, Turkey, Canada, Saudi Arabia and France as countries supporting an intervention.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon also warned that military strikes could spark further sectarian violence in the country which he said is suffering from a humanitarian crisis “unprecedented” in recent history.
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