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.