U.S. Signals UN Wouldn’t Have to Threaten Syria Force
The U.S. may accept a United Nations Security Council resolution that stops short of authorizing military action for Syrian violations of a chemical-weapons deal, according to U.S. officials.
The move would overcome objections from Russia and contribute to talks in Geneva and New York on a Syrian disarmament accord. A resolution acceptable to the U.S. could impose other consequences for Syrian violations, including economic sanctions and a provision for the council to revisit military authorization, said the officials, who asked not to be identified in briefing reporters.
Such a resolution wouldn’t foreclose unilateral U.S. military strikes, as President Barack Obama threatened after what he said was an Aug. 21 attack by the Syrian regime with the nerve agent sarin that killed more than 1,400 people, including more than 400 children, outside of Damascus.
“The use of chemical weapons that we saw in Syria was a criminal act” Obama said today. “It is absolutely important for the international community to respond in not only deterring repeated use of chemical weapons but hopefully getting those chemical weapons outside of Syria.”
An agreement on securing and destroying Syria’s chemical weapons must be “verifiable and enforceable,” Obama said, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reported “constructive conversations” in Geneva with his Russian counterpart.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-13/obama-sets-requirements-for-syria-deal-with-russia.html
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