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Syria crisis: Obama says world's credibility on the line | Syria crisis: Obama says world's credibility on the line |
(35 minutes later) | |
President Barack Obama has said the credibility of the US, its Congress and the international community is on the line over their response to Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons. | President Barack Obama has said the credibility of the US, its Congress and the international community is on the line over their response to Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons. |
Speaking in Sweden, he said the world should stick to its own "red line" against the use of chemical weapons. | Speaking in Sweden, he said the world should stick to its own "red line" against the use of chemical weapons. |
Mr Obama is trying to build support in the US for punitive military action against the Syrian government. | |
The US Congress will vote next week on whether to support his proposed action. | The US Congress will vote next week on whether to support his proposed action. |
France - whose government has strongly backed the US plan for intervention - is holding an extraordinary debate in the National Assembly, though MPs will not vote on the matter. | |
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault stressed the need to take action together with France's partners, saying: "Faced with barbarism, doing nothing is not an option." | |
He said it was "France's honour, France's duty" to act and that President Francois Hollande was continuing efforts to bring together a coalition. | |
"What message would this send to other regimes, and I am thinking like you of Iran and North Korea? The message would be clear: You can continue," he added. | |
Iran has rejected Western claims that it is seeking to build a nuclear weapon, while North Korea has a nuclear bomb but not yet the means to deliver it via a missile. | |
The UK parliament voted last month against military intervention in Syria. | |
Russia remains firmly opposed, with President Vladimir Putin warning on Wednesday that any strike without UN approval would be "an aggression". | |
But Mr Putin said Russia did not rule out supporting a UN Security Council resolution authorising force, if it was proved "beyond doubt" that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons. | |
He said it was "too early" to talk about what Russia would do if America took action without a UN resolution. | |
Meanwhile, Jordan's Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour told the BBC that it would back intervention in neighbouring Syria if proof emerged that chemical weapons had been used. | |
But he said any strikes would have to be precise, and that Jordan itself would not be involved. | |
'World's red line' | 'World's red line' |
The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is accused of using chemical weapons against civilians on several occasions during the 30-month conflict, most recently on a large scale in an attack on 21 August on the outskirts of Damascus. | The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is accused of using chemical weapons against civilians on several occasions during the 30-month conflict, most recently on a large scale in an attack on 21 August on the outskirts of Damascus. |
The US has put the death toll from that incident at 1,429 - though other countries and organisations have given lower figures - and says all the evidence implicates government forces. | The US has put the death toll from that incident at 1,429 - though other countries and organisations have given lower figures - and says all the evidence implicates government forces. |
President Assad has said such an attack would have been "illogical" because UN chemical weapons experts were visiting Damascus at the time. | President Assad has said such an attack would have been "illogical" because UN chemical weapons experts were visiting Damascus at the time. |
On Tuesday evening, senior members of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations agreed a draft resolution on military action to go before Congress - it specified that any operation would be "limited and tailored" and prohibit the use of any ground forces. | |
The full committee may vote on the draft on Wednesday. | |
Mr Obama has won the support of key Congressional leaders, though influential Republican John McCain said there were "number of people who are unhappy". | |
In Stockholm, Mr Obama was asked if he believed asking Congress to vote - which he was not constitutionally obliged to do - had put his credibility at stake. | In Stockholm, Mr Obama was asked if he believed asking Congress to vote - which he was not constitutionally obliged to do - had put his credibility at stake. |
"My credibility is not on the line. The international community's credibility is on the line," he replied. | "My credibility is not on the line. The international community's credibility is on the line," he replied. |
"America and Congress's credibility is on the line, because we give lip-service to the notion that these international norms are important." | "America and Congress's credibility is on the line, because we give lip-service to the notion that these international norms are important." |
Mr Obama, who has previously said that the use of chemical weapons would cross a "red line", told reporters that it was not him who set this line but the world, "when governments representing 98% of the world's population said the use of chemical weapons are abhorrent and passed a treaty forbidding their use even when countries are engaged in war". | Mr Obama, who has previously said that the use of chemical weapons would cross a "red line", told reporters that it was not him who set this line but the world, "when governments representing 98% of the world's population said the use of chemical weapons are abhorrent and passed a treaty forbidding their use even when countries are engaged in war". |
"Congress set a red line when it ratified that treaty," he added. | "Congress set a red line when it ratified that treaty," he added. |
He said he believed Congress would give its backing, because it recognised that the world would become "less safe" if chemical weapons were allowed to become the norm. | |
But he also stressed that as commander-in-chief, he had the right to act in his country's national interest. | |
The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Assad began in March 2011. | |
On Tuesday, the UN refugee agency said more than 2 million Syrians had now registered as refugees, and an estimated 4.25 million had been displaced within Syria, making it the worst refugee crisis since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. | |
The foreign ministers of Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq - which border Syrian and have taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees - are meeting at the UN in Geneva on Wednesday to discuss the humanitarian issue. | |
The ministers hope to persuade other richer countries to offer more support. |