Britain and France Join the U.S. in Warning Syria About Military Action
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Version 0 of 1. Britain and France raised the possibility of military intervention in the Syria conflict on Thursday, with the British prime minister joining President Obama in warning that he would not tolerate the transport or deployment of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile, and France’s defense minister saying that a partial no-fly zone should be considered. The British and French statements reinforced a sense that the window for diplomatic efforts to halt the 18-month-old conflict might have closed, as new crackdowns by the Syrian military were reported in the Damascus suburbs. Concern was also growing over the safety of journalists who have entered Syria without official permission to report on the conflict. A veteran Japanese war correspondent was killed on Monday in the embattled northern city of Aleppo, and an American freelance journalist who has been roving Syria with insurgents since May has been missing for more than a week. In a further sign of anxiety over the security surrounding chemical weapons stashed in Syria, officials said the subject came up in Istanbul during the first meeting of a newly created joint working group of the United States and Turkey. The purpose of the group, first announced by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton a few weeks ago, is to prepare for the aftermath of what leaders from both countries have described as the inevitable fall of President Bashar al-Assad. Worries about the chemical weapons were also expressed by Russia, the Assad government’s most important foreign supporter. Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the Russians were working closely with the Syrian authorities to guarantee that the chemical weapons arsenal remained secure. Syria confirmed for the first time last month that it had a stockpile of chemical weapons, which American officials have said includes supplies of deadly nerve agents. On Monday, Mr. Obama, worried that such weapons could fall into the hands of extremists in the chaos that has engulfed parts of Syria, issued a direct threat to the Syrian government about the possibility of American military action if such unconventional weapons were moved or deployed. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain added his voice to Mr. Obama’s warning on Thursday. A statement by his office at 10 Downing Street that was posted online said he and Mr. Obama had discussed the issue by telephone on Wednesday evening and that “both agreed that the use — or threat — of chemical weapons was completely unacceptable and would force them to revisit their approach so far.” The United States and other major Western nations supporting the opposition in Syria have repeatedly expressed reluctance to militarize the conflict further. But Mrs. Clinton has not ruled out the possibility of a partial no-fly zone, and on Thursday the French defense minister publicly backed that idea, suggesting air protection for rebel-held territory between Aleppo and the Turkish border. “The idea of a no-fly over a particular part of Syria, as suggested by Hillary Clinton, should be examined,” the minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said in an interview on the France 24 international news channel. In Syria on Thursday, opposition activists reported that government forces supported by tanks raided a suburb of Damascus in what appeared to be part of a widening military campaign in neighborhoods where the rebels are strong and the government is unable to assert full control. The opposition accounts said loyalist forces were searching the suburb, known as Daraya, house to house even though rebel forces had apparently withdrawn. The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition network in Syria, said 15 people in Daraya were killed by rocket fire, including a mother and two children. By late morning, the group said 73 people had been killed, mainly in the suburbs of Damascus. That death accounting could not be independently verified. The difficulties of firsthand reporting in Syria were underscored by reports that Austin Tice, 31, a freelance reporter and photographer who has worked for The Washington Post, the McClatchy Company and Agence France-Presse, among others, had not been seen or heard from since mid-August. The Committee to Protect Journalists, an advocacy group in New York, said in a statement it was “deeply concerned.” Mr. Tice, who served in the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan and was enrolled as a student in Georgetown Law School at the time he entered Syria, had often traveled with units of the Free Syrian Army, the main anti-Assad insurgent group, according to his profile on Flickr, the photo-sharing Web site. In a telephone interview with his parents, Debra and Marc Allen Tice, from their home in Houston, they said they had been in regular contact with Mr. Tice via online chatting or Twitter posts until recently. “It’s hard not to worry about his safety,” the mother said. “We’d like to hear from him. That’s the main thing that we’re thinking. We cling to the possibility that he’s just in a location where communication is impossible.” Both said they were grateful that both The Washington Post and McClatchy, which reported his disappearance on Thursday, had been very supportive of efforts to locate him. “Twitter is already exploding, and it’s a huge blessing to us that there are so many people who are expressing care and good wishes, and it really means a lot to us,” Ms. Tice said. They said that the State Department was also working to locate Mr. Tice through the American Interests Section at the embassy of the Czech Republic in Damascus. Mr. Tice, who did tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan, had developed a following on Facebook and Twitter through his accounts of the Syrian insurgency. “No, I don’t have a death wish,” Mr. Tice wrote on his Facebook page in July. “I have a life wish. So I’m living, in a place, at a time and with a people where life means more than anywhere I’ve ever been — because every single day people here lay down their own for the sake of others.” He wrote, “Coming here to Syria is the greatest thing I’ve ever done, and it’s the greatest feeling of my life.” <NYT_AUTHOR_ID> <p>Reporting was contributed by Hwaida Saad and Damien Cave from Beirut, Lebanon; Alan Cowell from Paris; and Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul. |