REPORT: Kerry, Hagel testify at U.S. Senate hearing on Syria Tuesday

  
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will be witnesses at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the authorization of the use of military force in Syria, the committee said.

In this regard, the Italian foreign ministry denied reports that the Friends of Syria group of nations would meet in Rome this weekend after a diplomatic source told Reuters that a meeting of the group was due to take place on Sept. 8.

Earlier, Russian lawmakers said they will urge the U.S. Congress not to approve military strikes on Syria, the speaker of the upper house of parliament told President Vladimir Putin.
   
"I think if we manage to establish a dialogue with our partners in the U.S. Congress ... we could possibly better understand each other, and we hope that the U.S. Congress will occupy a balanced position in the end and, without strong arguments in place ... will not support the proposal on use of force in Syria," Valentina Matviyenko said.

This as US President Barack Obama is said to be inviting former foe John McCain to the White House for talks on Syria.
 
He's hoping one of Congress' most intractable foreign policy hawks will help sell the idea of a U.S. military intervention in Syria to a nation deeply scarred by more than a decade of war.
 
President Obama announced on Saturday that he would seek congressional authorization for punitive military action against Syria after an apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians on Aug. 21. The administration has been making its case for a strike through telephone calls, meetings, briefings and conference calls with lawmakers.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's government is being accused of an attack in the Damascus suburbs last month that the U.S. says included sarin gas and killed 1,429 civilians, more than 400 of them children. Republican and Democratic lawmakers are divided on whether they want to see military action.


Reactions:

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday scorned allegations that his forces were behind chemical attacks in Damascus last month and warned that any French military action against his government would trigger negative repercussions.   

This as French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said France aims to build a coalition of countries to back military action against the Syrian government in response to a chemical weapons attack in Damascus.             

"This act cannot be left without a response," Ayrault said after presenting an intelligence report on Syria to lawmakers. "It's not for France to act alone. The president is continuing his work of persuasion to bring together a coalition without delay."               

"France is determined to penalize the use of chemical weapons by (President Bashar al-)Assad's regime and to dissuade with a forceful and firm response," Ayrault said. "The objective is neither to topple the regime or liberate the country." he said, adding that only a political solution in Syria was possible.

In turn, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that "a firm international response is needed to an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria".

"We believe that these unspeakable actions which claimed the lives of hundreds of men, women and children cannot be ignored," Rasmussen told a news conference.

"I think there is an agreement that we need a firm international response in order to avoid that chemical attacks take place in the future. It would send, I would say, a dangerous signal to dictators all over the world if we stand idly by and don't react," he said.

"I have been presented with concrete information and, without going into details, I can tell you that personally I am convinced, not only that a chemical attack has taken place, but I am also convinced that the Syrian regime is responsible," NATO chief Rasmussen told a news conference.

This as Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said the information the U.S. showed Moscow trying to prove that the Syrian regime was behind an alleged chemical weapons attack is "absolutely unconvincing".

For its part, China said it was seriously concerned about any unilateral military action against Syria after U.S. President Barack Obama delayed a military response to last month's chemical weapons attack near Damascus until after a congressional vote.

The United States has explained to China its evidence on chemical weapons use in Syria, China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a daily news briefing.

China has said that no side should rush to pre-judge the results of an investigation by U.N. chemical weapons experts in Syria, who it said should carry out an objective and impartial investigation in consultation with the Syrian government.

Seven million Syrians displaced by civil war-UN
         
The head of the U.N. refugee agency in Syria says 7 million Syrians, or almost one-third of the population, have been displaced by the country's civil war.
 
Tarik Kurdi told The Associated Press on Monday that 5 million of the displaced are still in Syria while about 2 million have fled to neighboring countries. He says 2 million children are among those directly affected by the war.
 
 Kurdi says U.N. assistance has been a "drop in the sea of humanitarian need" and that the funding gap is "very, very wide." He says international donors have sent less than one-third of the money needed to help those displaced by the war.
 
 More than 100,000 Syrians have been killed since an uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad erupted in 2011.
 

AP/REUTERS
 
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