REPORT: Obama says to address U.S. public on Syria on Tuesday -...

26^min

US President Barack Obama said Friday he's encouraged by talks with foreign leaders over how to respond to chemical weapons use in Syria and plans to make his case to the American people in an address Tuesday night.

President Obama held a surprise meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a chief opponent of U.S. military action.

Putin, a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, said this discussion with Obama focused on Syria during the 20 to 30 minutes and that, while they disagreed, the meeting was "substantial and constructive."

Obama said he urged Putin to set aside his differences with the U.S. over the use of chemical weapons and try to help encourage a political transition in Syria.

In this regard, President Obama said the humanitarian situation in Syria and along its borders is "only getting worse", stressing that the problem is "not in anyone's interest." Obama also insists that the Syrian government is responsible for chemical weapons attacks against civilians and is pushing for the United States to respond with a military strike.

US President Obama said the leaders are unanimous in believing that chemical weapons were used in Syria and that international norms against that use must be maintained. He said division comes over how to proceed through the United Nations.

President Barack Obama declined however to speculate whether he would go ahead with a military strike in Syria if Congress votes against authorizing it, saying he would try to convince Americans and lawmakers of the need to act against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

"I put it before Congress because I could not honestly claim that the threat posed by Assad's use of chemical weapons on innocent civilians and women and children posed an imminent, direct threat to the United States," Obama said, adding that if there had been a direct threat to the United States or allies, he would have taken action without consulting Congress.

Putting up stiff resistance to Obama's appeals, Russia on Friday warned the United States and its allies against striking any chemical weapon storage facilities in Syria. The Russian foreign ministry said such targeting could release toxic chemicals and give militants or terrorist access to chemical weapons.

President Vladimir Putin said Russia did not want to be sucked into a war over Syria, signaling that Moscow would maintain current levels of support to Damascus in the case of foreign military intervention.

Asked at the end of a Group of Twenty summit whether Russia would help Syria in such circumstances, Putin made no reference to defending the Middle Eastern nation or increasing military assistance. This comes after Putin blamed an alleged chemical attack on opponents of the Syrian government, saying it was a provocation, and suggested that a punitive U.S. military strike on the Middle Eastern nation would harm the global economy and stifle growth.

Both Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have blocked UN Security Council action against Syria, which has frustrated US efforts for international solidarity.

The US and France are preparing possible military action against Assad, and are trying at the G-20 summit to get backing from other world powers.

On another note, Russia is sending its large landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov towards the Syrian coast, state news agency Interfax quoted a navy source as saying on Friday.

Reactions:

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said on Friday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had barely dented his stockpile of chemical weapons in an alleged attack near Damascus last month.

"We assess that although Assad used more chemical weapons on August 21 than he had before, he has barely put a dent in his enormous stockpile," she said at the Center for American Progress think tank in Washington.

"We have exhausted the alternatives" to military action, she said, adding that Assad must have weighed the fact that Russia would back him in the controversy over his alleged use of chemical weapons and it was naive to think Russia would change.

This as French President Francois Hollande said France would await the conclusions of U.N. inspectors investigating last month's chemical weapon attack in Syria before deciding on any action.

Any strikes on Syria would be limited to military targets to avoid civilian casualties, President Hollande added.

Earlier, the United Nations peace envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said no state had the right to "take the law into their hands" and conduct military action against Syria without UN Security Council approval.

Brahimi spoke on the sidelines of a G20 summit after meetings with foreign ministers including Russia's Sergei Lavrov, who said many nations realize that striking Syria without Security Council backing would scuttle the chances of reaching a political solution.

In turn, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his US counterpart Barack Obama that the crisis in Syria should be resolved through a political solution and not a military strike, state news agency Xinhua said.

For his part, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said almost all leaders at the G20 summit accepted the need for an operation to be carried out against Syria following a chemical weapons attack there last month.

Syria offers bounty for foreign "terrorists":

For the first time in Syria's 2-1/2 year conflict, the government is offering a bounty to anyone who captures a foreign "terrorist" - the word authorities use for rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

In a brief statement on Syrian television, authorities said they would give 500,000 Syrian pounds to anyone who brought in a "non-Syrian terrorist" and 200,000 pounds to anyone who gave information on their whereabouts or helped apprehend them.

The pound officially trades at 128 to the dollar, but the black market rate stands is about 200 to the dollar.

State media said the identities of those who provided information would be kept secret and their "protection ensured".

Economy:

The Group of 20 will say in its summit communique that the global economy is improving but that it is too early to say that it has overcome a crisis, a Russian official involved in its drafting told Reuters on Friday.

"Compared to start of the Russian presidency there has definitely been a shift in the assessment, and that is reflected in the leaders' communique," Andrei Bokarev, head of the Finance Ministry's international relations department, said.

"But it's definitely too early to say that the crisis has been overcome and that it will be easy from now on."

REUTERS/AP

For the full report, please click on the VIDEO above

News Bulletin Reports

Obama

address

public

Syria

Tuesday

2025 in Lebanon: LBCI reflects on a year of challenges, coverage, and coexistence