Syria dares Obama, says he is ‘confused’

Obama is ‘hesitant and
confused’: Syrian deputy FM
Meanwhile the decision by President Barack
Obama to take a step back from an
imminent strike on Syria puts all eyes on
Vladimir Putin’s G20 summit where the
Russian and US leaders will push for global
support of their divergent policies.
The Kremlin has said that Syria is not on the
official agenda of the summit to be hosted
by Russia in Saint Petersburg on Thursday
and Friday. But with both Moscow and
Washington keen to use it as a platform to
discuss a potential US-led strike against the
Syrian regime, the issue is quickly becoming
the elephant in the room.
The two-day meeting, to be attended by the
Group of 20 heads of state or government,
will also likely be the last chance for a face-
to-face debate over possible military
intervention before it is voted on in the US
Congress, due to come back from recess on
September 9.
Obama’s move on Saturday to push back
military action until after a debate and vote
by US lawmakers followed Putin’s call not to
take rash actions, which had some Russian
politicians gloating on Sunday.
“Obama was one step away from war,”
tweeted the head of the Russian
parliament’s international affairs committee
Alexei Pushkov. “He does not want to be the
second George Bush with the whole world
against him.”
Russia has rejected claims that the regime of
Bashar al-Assad has used chemical arms,
and Putin, in his first public reaction to
claims that Assad was behind attacks on
August 21, said the United States must
provide proof and avoid repeating the past
“mistakes” of Iraq and other interventions.
He called on Obama to use the G20 summit
as a venue to flesh out their differences over
Syria, even though the Kremlin denied earlier
that any bilateral meeting has been planned
between the two leaders.
“I would tell my colleague (Obama) that we
shall have a meeting soon in Saint
Petersburg,” Putin said after repeating
Russia’s position that the alleged attack was
a “provocation” to draw the US into the
conflict, and that for the Syrian regime to
use chemical weapons would be “utter
nonsense.”
“Of course the G20… cannot be a
replacement for the UN Security Council,
which is the sole body that can make a
decision about using force. But it’s a good
place to discuss the problem. Why not use
the opportunity?,” Putin said.
Obama will also use the delay in taking
action on Syria to build more international
support for the US position at the summit in
Russia, a White House official said late
Saturday.
Russia has supported Assad, vowing to veto
any action against him in the Security
Council, and Putin on Saturday admitted that
he had not discussed Syria with Obama
since the first accusations against the
regime regarding the chemical attacks were
made.
But hosting the summit in one of the
Kremlin’s official residence palaces, Putin will
have prime opportunity to argue his case,
bolstered by the war-weary British
parliament’s shock rejection of military
action which left France as America’s main
Syria ally.