Syria crisis: Russia and US 'no closer'

Mr Putin said it was "counter-productive" to destabilise the situation in the Middle East.
His comments came in a news conference on the final day of the G20 summit in St Petersburg.
US President Barack Obama had been pushing for support among leaders at the G20 for a US strike on Syria.

The US government accuses President Bashar al-Assad's forces of killing 1,429 people in a poison-gas attack in the Damascus suburbs on 21 August.

Mr Assad has blamed rebels for the attack. China and Russia, which have refused to agree to a UN Security Council resolution against Syria, insist any action without the UN would be illegal.

Mr Putin said the discussions about Syria on Thursday evening had gone on well past midnight.
He added that he had a one-to-one meeting with Mr Obama in which they had discussed Syria.
Both men had listened to the other's position but had not agreed, he said.

Also speaking at the end of the summit, Mr Obama said there was a "unanimous" view that chemical weapons had been used in Syria.

He also said most leaders present at the summit thought it was most likely that the regime of President Assad was responsible.

Mr Obama argued action was required even when the Security Council was paralysed, as the international consensus against the use of chemical weapons had to be upheld.

However, Mr Putin described the use of chemical weapons as "a provocation on the part of the militants who are expecting to get support from outside".

British Prime Minister David Cameron said only responding to the crisis through the UN Security Council would mean the UK "contracting out its morality and foreign policy to the potential of a Russian veto".

The US government accuses Mr Assad's forces of killing 1,429 people in a poison-gas attack in the suburbs of Damascus on 21 August.

While the UK, Canada and Turkey all support Mr Obama's call for action, the only leaders at the G20 meeting to commit to force in Syria are the US and France.

Correspondents in St Petersburg say opponents of US military intervention appear to far outnumber supporters within the G20.

Labels: Atrocities, Conflict, Defence, G20, Intervention, Russia, Syria, United States

posted by Pieface @ Friday, September 06, 2013