The US has a plan to help Syria‘s rebels bring down the Assad regime after launching military strikes, President Obama has said.
Mr Obama said again that military action against Syria would be “limited” but suggested a strike would go further than simply punishing President Bashar al Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons.
The president said he was confident that Congress would vote in favour of military action and called for a prompt vote on the issue.
During a meeting of congressional leaders at the White House, he said: ”What we are envisioning is something limited. It is something proportional. It will degrade Assad’s capabilities.
“At the same time we have a broader strategy that will allow us to upgrade the capabilities of the opposition.”
Washington is currently assessing whether to order sea-launched strikes against Syria, with President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden attempting to convince Congress of the need to intervene.
Mr Obama clarified his intentions after influential senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham met with him and said they expected US military action to be “more robust” than previously thought.
Mr Graham said: “It is all in the details, but I left the meeting feeling better than I felt before about what happens the day after and that the purpose of the attack is going to be a little more robust than I thought.”
Mr McCain said in an interview that Mr Obama did not reveal what weapons might be provided to the opposition in Syria or discuss in what targets might be attacked.
“There was no concrete agreement, ‘OK, we got a deal,’” Mr McCain said.
“Like a lot of things, the devil is in the details.”
Mr Obama’s latest statement came after tensions in the Middle East were raised by Israel’s unannounced missile launch in the Mediterranean.
Israel confirmed it carried out a joint missile system test with the US after Russia’s defence ministry said two ballistic “objects” were fired towards the eastern Mediterranean from the central part of the sea.
Israel’s defence ministry said it had tested a single Sparrow target missile, which it said was “successfully” detected and tracked by its Arrow missile-defence system.
Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon shrugged off a question on whether the launch might have been ill-timed, telling reporters Israel had to work to maintain its military edge.
“It is known that preparedness of the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) in the last week relies a lot on technological capabilities, that the defence establishment in its wider sense puts at the army’s disposal.
“Research and development in the defence industry – engineers, scientists who work day and night – they know at the end of the day to put Israel in the front line of technology.
“This necessitates field trials and, accordingly, a successful trial was conducted to test our systems. And we will continue to develop and to research and to equip the IDF with the best systems in the world.”
More follows…
Syria: Obama Makes New Military Action Vow
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/syria-obama-makes-military-action-vow-142718726.html
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rss/usa-politics
USA News Headlines – Yahoo! News UK
The latest USA news headlines from Yahoo! News UK. Find videos, pictures and in-depth USA coverage
http://l.yimg.com/os/mit/media/m/index/img/Yahoo_logo_en-GB.gif
Syria: Obama Makes New Military Action Vow
No comments:
Post a Comment