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INTERNATIONAL DIVISIONS OVER military action in Syria have dominated the beginning of the first day of the G20 summit in St Petersburg.
Both Russia and China have warned the US against taking military action against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime without UN approval with EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy also urging caution.
President van Rompuy said that the international community “cannot remain idle in face of cynical use of chemical weapons” but emphasised the need for dialogue and not force:
There is no military solution to the Syrian conflict. Only a political solution can end the terrible bloodshed, grave violations of human rights and the far-reaching destruction of Syria. Too many lives have already been lost and too many people have suffered for too long and lost too much.
Van Rompuy’s words also hint towards division within the EU on military intervention in the Syrian conflict. Both France and the UK would be supportive of any US-led strikes despite UK Prime Minister David Cameron being hamstrung by his defeat last week in a House of Commons vote that would have authorised UK involvement.
During the opening salvos at the G20 meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the Syria crisis would be discussed over dinner on Thursday evening.
With pressure mounting on the G20 group of nations to make concrete progress towards ending the conflict at their summit in Saint Petersburg, the United Nations also announced that its special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was on his way to attend the meet to push for peace talks.
Obama arrived in Saint Petersburg from Sweden after clearing the first hurdle in his race to win domestic congressional backing for punitive strikes over the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday gave its backing by a 10-7 vote for the use of force. Senate leaders said the full chamber will vote next week on the motion, when Obama is expected to carry the day.
In a bid to smooth over the tensions, Obama and Putin put on a show of smiles for the cameras as they shook hands just before the summit got under way.
(Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with President Barack Obama during arrivals for the G-20 summit. Photo: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Putin opened the summit by revealing that the Syria crisis — which has threatened to overshadow all other items at the meeting — would be formally discussed over dinner.
“Some participants have asked me to give the time and possibility to discuss other… very acute topics of international politics, in particular the situation around Syria,” Putin told the opening plenary session of the meeting on the shores of the Gulf of Finland at a former Imperial palace outside Saint Petersburg
“I suggest we do this during dinner so that we… in the first part can discuss the (economic) problems we had gathered here for and are key for the G20,” he added.
An Obama aide said he would argue his case for military action against Syria and explore what type of “political and diplomatic support they may express for our efforts to hold Syrian regime accountable”.
But Syria’s allies remained unmoved by Obama’s push, with Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling allegations of an August 21 chemical weapons attack by the regime a “pretext” to launch strikes against the country, and pledging to support Damascus “until the end”.
On the eve of the summit, Putin bluntly warned the West that any military action without UN Security Council approval would be an “aggression” and once again demanded watertight proof of chemical weapons use.
(President Barack Obama, left, listens as Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Beyond convincing Russia, Obama has a tough sell ahead elsewhere, with China — another veto-wielding Security Council member state — having already expressed its “grave concerns” over unilateral military strikes.
A political solution is the only way to end the Syria crisis, a senior Chinese official said on Thursday, warning world powers to be “highly prudent” over the issue.
“War cannot solve the problem in Syria,” Chinese delegation spokesman Qin Gang told reporters at the G20.
Pope Francis added his voice to the calls for a peaceful solution to the Syria crisis, warning against “futile pursuit of a military solution”.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly ruled out her country’s participation in any US-led military strike against Assad’s regime, while the British parliament has also rejected the idea.
While no formal bilateral sit-down meeting is planned between Obama and Putin, a White House official suggested there would likely be some kind of more informal conversation.
Additional reporting by © – AFP
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It’s good to see that MOST of the leaders here are using a level headed approach…
Andrea. A hypothetical question for you. If there was ironclad irrefutable proof that the Syrian Government were responsible for this CW attack. What should the response of the world be?
@Michael. Whatever the response is, any action should be backed by the UN. No individual country is worth risking a potential WW3
@ Niall
Good comment well said I like the cut of you jib young man
Niall. Problem being that no matter what evidence that may be given to the Russians they would veto any action against Syria. That being the casethe UN would be powerless. So in that scenario what do you suggest be done.
Not necessarily. They may not veto. Here’s a question for you. If China or Russia used chemical weapons against their citizens would you want to bomb them? Have to look at the bigger picture as inhumane as it sounds. An attack is pointless anyway. It can’t achieve anything and will lead inevitably lead to further conflict
@ mick
You don’t know that the Russians would veto it that’s just an assumption on your part , they may in fact if shown strong evidence side with the UN
The war should be allowed to play itself out without direct military intervention. Obama’s stated concern is that non intervention would lead Iran to dismiss USA threats to them. So,, one of the main reasons for USA intervention is to send a message to Iran. USA has absolutely no interest in chemical weapons being used (look what they use themselves) and the death toll to date has caused them no problem (100,000 die and USA does nothing). This is merely a pretext. No reason for intervention at all
2 extremes here. One side want to hit his military machine hard and right now. The other side wants keep sending bombarding Damascus with diplomatic rose petals while the death toll mounts. Both attitudes have been proven wrong and have only served to make the situation worse in many international incidents in the past. All this only highlights the shortcomings in the system the UN uses.
The use of Poison Gas has been unacceptable for the overwhelming majority of the worlds countries for nearly a century. And with the CW convention in the 90′s only 6 countries in the world maintain combat ready stocks of CW. So the World has already decided that the use of and possession of this form of weapon is unacceptable.
It didn’t stop the Americans in the last 100 years, they were more than willing to use Agent Orange in Vietnam!
What about the use of depleted uranium shells in Iraq Mick? Those perpetrators should also be held to account.
Yes.. Hypothetically speaking.
@Michael
If there was irrefutable proof then he should be brought before the Hague by the UN and tried as a war criminal instead of plans to bomb his country, diminish his army and infrastructure and leave his country open to the takeover by heart eating, decapitating savages. Use your loaf man! You don’t bomb a country, kill hundreds of people to avenge the killing of hundreds of people. I’ve never heard such utter sh!te in all my life from civilized nations to even contemplate such an act. It cannot possibly be even taken seriously.
But back in the real world Mick, their isn’t 100% proof, just reassurances from a nation that has a track record for starting wars for reasons that later turn out to be untrue and that get a lot more innocent people killed then if they had have nothing.
@Mick
Also your thumbs down reflects that the Journal still does have an intelligent readership thank God.
Pat. Answer this question. Is Agent Orange classed as a Weapon or is it Classed as a Herbicide?
There is no and I repeat no evidence linking depleted uranium munitions to any form of illness.
As I have said previously that it could be the case the the evidence linking the Syrian Government may have come from a sensitive source. And due to the nature of this source the evidencial proof cannot be made available to the General Public because of the danger to said source.
Look up why it was used in Vietnam, as part of the Us chemical warfare strategy called Operation Ranch Hand / Operation Trail Dust!
Answer the quest I asked Pat.
@NiallH, if you think the UN Security Council make resolutions by carefully analysing the evidence before them, then unfortunately you’re wrong. It’d be great if they made a decision rationally like a court but they don’t. It’s all politics as emphasised by the fact that certain countries have vetoes. And they exercise that veto in their own best interests rather than on the evidence before them.
Michael I love the way you side step facts about your beloved American. Facts are all in black and white. They have used chemical warfare before and Vietnam is a perfect example. They are to this day the only nation to use a atom bomb on mankind. See we all don’t hate America mick but we see whats happening. The US government have turned the UN into a toothless dog and will end up like the league of nations, asking for Europe to join this potentially costly and killer war but at the same time running spy programmes against them. Libya, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered the fate of American invasion and look at them. The US government are becoming lawless in a game that usually results in lots of people dying. And mick, do you know that over 80% of Americans don’t want this war.
Mr Know. What CW were used in Vietnam.
Nicely put MrKnow.
Mick, chemical weapons = red herring. The ‘pesticide’ Agent Orange was mass sprayed in Vietnam and maimed and killed hundreds of thousands of ‘innocent’ men, women, children, and babies. What’s the difference? You’re starting to resemble Reginald’s Boner and Kevin Nazi in your comments.
I agree Niall going to war is pointless and innocent people always suffer, but at the same time I have no respect for Putin he is a dictator, a racists and he hates democracy. The leader of Syria will pay the price and when that time comes he should be brought to trial for war crimes.
Fran it was a Defoliant a Herbicide not a “Pesticide” as you put it. And it did not maim and kill those it was sprayed on. It effected their children. So Fran if you are going to make silly statements at least check before you reply.
It affected their children….ahhhh that’s ok Michael. Jeeze for a minute there I thought it did serious damage. Talk about backing yourself into a corner.
There’s is no arguing with this lad Michael. Agent Orange is made up of chemicals and it was certainly used as a weapon on the people of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
The Americans used it in a military sense as a weapon to defoliate forests, to clear perimeters of military installations etc. The worst usage of Agent Orange was to destroy crops so as to decrease the rural populations/enemies food supplies thus decreasing hoping this would lead to a decrease in support for the enemy and increasing forced urbanisation. This is what the Americans goals were in using Agent Orange so yeah it most certainly was a chemical weapon used indiscriminately and in a disgusting manner! The effects of it are still felt in SE Asia to this day!
Pat. It is not classed as a Weapon any where. In no journal be it medical, civil or Military.
Fran. Like I said learn something about the topic. When the US used it to defoliate the forest that the NVA and VC were using as cover to move men and weapons into South Vietnam nobody knew of it’s side effects. So when the children of the affected began having deformities the war was over.
Using the thumbs up or thumbs down on the Journal in an argument is ridiculous in my opinion. A simple statement of fact that no study has ever proven that depleted uranium rounds, which I must add are only used against armoured targets like tanks or APC’s, have created adverse health effects gets thumbed down into oblivion. Some people just cannot accept that the facts do not support their baseless ranting.
Mick, Monsanto warned the US government that Agent Orange contain TCDD which due to numerous accidents before hand was known to present a health risk, yet they used it anyway not only on the likely positions of North Vietnamese but on the locations their own men and allies as well as farmland in the hands of non-combatants.
America is like a big muscle bully that just knows how to smash things. I just don’t understand America any more. They are really going to cause a major war that will pull the world into if they keep this up. There argument the other day for this war was we need take action against syria to send Iran a message and these are the people that are running the world its a very scary time with these Americans masquerading them selfs as the good guys.
I am sickened after watching two young boys being butchered in an apparent “execution” by a masked jihadist who stood over them spewing hatred and propaganda like a demonically possessed lunatic playing to the camera. Is this what it has come to? This madness has got to stop!
Arabs can say what they like about western society, about Natural Justice, Due Process and The Geneva Convention. They may say that they are signs of soft western decadence and weakness, but there is goodness, respect and basic human decency at the heart of each. These are concepts that are in very short supply anywhere jihadists gain a foothold. They have no respect for the Rule of Law, for the sanctity of life, for the dignity of women, but most endemic and insidious in their thinking is that they cannot compromise and try to co-exist with anyone who does not share their crazy view of the world. In Syria, because there was no western intervention early in the uprising when civilians were first attacked, Jihadist factions have moved in to fill the vacuum, in the same way that they came to Yugoslavia in the 90′s. Even if there is a total cessation of violence today, it would probably take another full scale war to remove the jihadists from Syria. If I was Obama I would be targeting the depraved savages who summarily torture and execute children and then post it on you tube.
You do realise that America probably funded these jihadists that ‘filled the vacuum’
Something just doesn’t add up about this war Obama is looking for
So much for receiving a Nobel peace prize ha!
Niall, any source?
Actually the biggest financial support for jihadist mercenaries in Bosnia came from Saudi and other gulf states.
Ever more appalling atrocities are now being committed by both sides on a daily basis in the world’s most heartbroken land, Syria.
If this was a civil war in a Christian territory – as was the case in Northern Ireland, Churchmen of both sides would be calling for peace and restraint, but the Mullahs and the Imams remain silent. The proponents of Islam will always tell you that it is a religion of peace and love, I see nothing of that in Syria.
Yet all sides fight and murder and suffer and die believing that God is on their side, with ” Allah Akbar ” (God is great) on their lips, often their last words. Is this war being fought for God or for power, for greed, or for evil?
Why is it that in Muslim conflicts, it is more important to kill than it is to preserve life, that it is more “honourable” to torture than to heal, and that cruelty will get you into heaven quicker than kindness?
I may be a lapsed Catholic, I may have issues with the administration of the church, however, the central Christian messages of forbearance, forgiveness, charity, tolerance, Peace, justice and the precious value of life, I still believe in very strongly.
Finally, I do believe that Israel’s aggressive oppression of the Palestinian people has in many ways turned the Middle East into a powder keg but they cannot be blamed for the horror in Syria. They could in some small way however adopt a more “Christian” and charitable approach to the appalling refugee exodus in south west syria, by opening up the border in the Golan Heights (which is after all an Israeli occupied Syrian territory), and in so doing create a safe haven for thousands of Syrian refugees, many of whom are not muslim, who find themselves trapped between the tanks of the Syrian army and the barbed wire and the electrified fences of the Israeli occupation force.
Keep out of syrie
Who would of thought it?The E.U. actually doing something right for a change.
How ironic that Obama isn’t having a meeting with Putin or Cameron but is meeting the French president while at the same time they are encouraging “talks” between both sides in the Syrian conflict
Shouldn’t Syria be top of the agenda?
It should. But Putin at first did not want to even mention it. Only bowing to pressure from the rest.
I think our elites and media think that if they keep repeating that Assad used chemical weapons we will accept it without them producing a shred of evidence to prove it.
Tell the lie enough times until it becomes the truth!
Cowen the same could be said of the Pro- Regime side.
You mean like the regime supporters here who kept claiming on every article that the rebels committed the attack and the only proof they had were two “anonymous sources” who nobody but the author of the claim could verify? Both sides are just as guilty of it.
On a autumns day the bombs rained down, no Syrian people to be found, the smell in the air was the only clue , the person who pressed the button didn’t think it through…..
“Like a lot of things, the devil is in the details.”
Judging by Obama’s handshake in the picture he’s telling Putin don’t mess with me boy!
Robert
I got €50 on Putin
Shoulda put more on mate.
Putin former KGB trained killer vs Obama former Harvard educated lawyer.Not much of a contest really.
?????
Is it the voices in your head telling you he is a killer? I’d say Obama killed more innocent than any dictator before
I think the opposite, he can’t even look at him while his body faces away while Putin is standing square up to him.
You honestly think that Obama has killed more than Stalin or Hitler? You really need your head examined.
Mao is called a hero by some yet he was responsible for between 80 and 100 million deaths.
If Obama wants to bomb Syria, leave him off.
shake the hand that shook the world………kaboom
If Obanana wants to make a name for himself, leave him to it.
have your say