LONDON — As United Nations weapons inspectors prepared on Monday to inspect the site of a claimed chemical attack in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad was quoted as denying that his forces used poison gas against his own citizens, while divisions between outside powers over how to handle the crisis seemed to show no signs of easing.
[h=6]Agence France-Presse — Getty Images[/h]During an interview with the Russian newspaper Izvestia, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria warned that United States military intervention in his country would bring "failure."
In an interview with the Russian newspaper Izvestia, Mr. Assad said accusations that his forces used chemical weapons were illogical and an “insult to common sense,” news reports said. He warned the United States that military intervention in his country would bring “failure just like in all the previous wars they waged, starting with Vietnam and up to our days.”
Mr. Assad’s choice of a Russian newspaper to air his views seemed to reflect Moscow’s strong support for the Syrian leader following last week’s attack on the outskirts of Damascus, which claimed hundreds of lives.
On Sunday, a spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Aleksandr K. Lukashevich, said that those who advocated an armed response to any chemical weapons attack — without citing the United States or other countries — were prejudging the results of the United Nations inspections.
“In these conditions, we again resolutely call on all those who are trying to impose the results of the U.N. investigations and who say that armed actions against Syria is possible to show common sense and avoid tragic mistakes,” Mr. Lukashevich said in a statement released on the ministry’s Web site.
While Mr. Assad has reportedly given weapons inspectors access to the site of the attack, his gesture has been greeted with widespread skepticism in the West that the offer came too late for inspectors to make an accurate assessment of what happened.
In an interview Monday with Europe 1, a French radio station, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius of France, which has been a close ally of the rebels seeking Mr. Assad’s ouster in the country’s civil war, said “all options” were still open, but “the only option I do not envisage is to do nothing.”
Mr. Fabius said there was no doubt that chemical weapons had been used and outside powers would negotiate a “proportionate response” in the “days to come.”
In the welter of diplomatic maneuvering, Turkey, which also a strong supporter of the rebels, said it would join an international coalition against Mr. Assad if the United Nations Security Council could not reach a consensus, Reuters reported, quoting Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in an interview with the Millyet newspaper.
In the interview with Izvestia, Mr. Assad was quoted as saying, “America has taken part in many wars but could not once achieve its political goals for which the wars were started. Yes, it is true, the great powers can wage wars but can they win them?”
He said government troops would have risked killing their own forces if they had used chemical weapons. “This contradicts elementary logic,” news reports quoted him as saying. It is “not us but our enemies who are using chemical weapons,” he said, referring to antigovernment rebels as “the terrorists.”
For his part, President Obama has not decided to take action, officials in Washington said on Sunday. But, moving a step closer to possible American military involvement in Syria, a senior Obama administration official said that there was “very little doubt” that Mr. Assad’s military forces had used chemical weapons against civilians and that a Syrian promise to allow United Nations inspectors access to the site was “too late to be credible.”
[h=6]Agence France-Presse — Getty Images[/h]During an interview with the Russian newspaper Izvestia, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria warned that United States military intervention in his country would bring "failure."
In an interview with the Russian newspaper Izvestia, Mr. Assad said accusations that his forces used chemical weapons were illogical and an “insult to common sense,” news reports said. He warned the United States that military intervention in his country would bring “failure just like in all the previous wars they waged, starting with Vietnam and up to our days.”
Mr. Assad’s choice of a Russian newspaper to air his views seemed to reflect Moscow’s strong support for the Syrian leader following last week’s attack on the outskirts of Damascus, which claimed hundreds of lives.
On Sunday, a spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Aleksandr K. Lukashevich, said that those who advocated an armed response to any chemical weapons attack — without citing the United States or other countries — were prejudging the results of the United Nations inspections.
“In these conditions, we again resolutely call on all those who are trying to impose the results of the U.N. investigations and who say that armed actions against Syria is possible to show common sense and avoid tragic mistakes,” Mr. Lukashevich said in a statement released on the ministry’s Web site.
While Mr. Assad has reportedly given weapons inspectors access to the site of the attack, his gesture has been greeted with widespread skepticism in the West that the offer came too late for inspectors to make an accurate assessment of what happened.
In an interview Monday with Europe 1, a French radio station, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius of France, which has been a close ally of the rebels seeking Mr. Assad’s ouster in the country’s civil war, said “all options” were still open, but “the only option I do not envisage is to do nothing.”
Mr. Fabius said there was no doubt that chemical weapons had been used and outside powers would negotiate a “proportionate response” in the “days to come.”
In the welter of diplomatic maneuvering, Turkey, which also a strong supporter of the rebels, said it would join an international coalition against Mr. Assad if the United Nations Security Council could not reach a consensus, Reuters reported, quoting Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in an interview with the Millyet newspaper.
In the interview with Izvestia, Mr. Assad was quoted as saying, “America has taken part in many wars but could not once achieve its political goals for which the wars were started. Yes, it is true, the great powers can wage wars but can they win them?”
He said government troops would have risked killing their own forces if they had used chemical weapons. “This contradicts elementary logic,” news reports quoted him as saying. It is “not us but our enemies who are using chemical weapons,” he said, referring to antigovernment rebels as “the terrorists.”
For his part, President Obama has not decided to take action, officials in Washington said on Sunday. But, moving a step closer to possible American military involvement in Syria, a senior Obama administration official said that there was “very little doubt” that Mr. Assad’s military forces had used chemical weapons against civilians and that a Syrian promise to allow United Nations inspectors access to the site was “too late to be credible.”