President Barack
Obama said on
Saturday he had decided the United States should strike Syrian government
targets in response to a deadly chemical weapons attack, but said he would seek
a congressional vote for any military action.
"We cannot and will not turn a blind eye to what happened in
Damascus," Obama said in statement at the White House Rose Garden.
Accordingly, House Speaker John
Boehner and other Republican leaders said in a statement after President Barack
Obama spoke on Saturday that the US House of Representatives will consider a
measure on military action against Syria the week of Sept. 9.
On another note, House Speaker Boehner's office reported that members of the US House of
Representatives will receive a classified White House briefing on Sunday on the
situation in Syria.
In turn, the United Nations on Saturday
vehemently rejected suggestions that the world body was somehow stepping aside
to allow US air strikes on Syria and said its humanitarian work in the
conflict-ravaged country would continue.
"I have seen all kinds of reporting
suggesting that the departure of the chemical weapons team somehow opens a
window for military action of some kind," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told
reporters.
"Frankly, that's grotesque, and it's
also an affront to the more than 1,000 staff, UN staff, who are on the ground
in Syria delivering humanitarian aid and who will continue to deliver critical
aid," he said.
The UN experts
investigating last week's alleged chemical weapons strike outside Damascus left Syria and crossed into Lebanon, departing
hours after US President Barack Obama said he is weighing "limited and
narrow" action against a Syrian regime that the administration has accused
of launching the deadly attack.
An Associated Press crew
saw the UN personnel enter Lebanon from Syria through the Al-Masnaa border
crossing and then drive in a 13-car convoy to the Beirut International
Airport.
After four days of
on-site inspections, the team wrapped up its investigation Friday into the
suspected chemical attack on rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Aug. 21.
The experts took with
them blood and urine samples from victims as well as soil samples from the
affected areas for examination in laboratories in Europe.
The United Nations has
said it will try to expedite its final report, and UN disarmament chief Angela
Kane is to brief Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon later Saturday on the
investigation.
However, the Arab
foreign ministers are expected to hold on Sunday a meeting aiming at discussing
the latest developments regarding the Syrian crisis.
This as US President
Barack Obama said on Friday he was weighing "limited and narrow"
action against Syria, edging toward a retaliatory strike.
The Obama administration
bluntly accused Bashar al-Assad's government of launching a chemical weapons
attack that killed at least 1,429 people, far more than previous estimates,
including more than 400 children.
In this regard, defense
officials said a sixth US warship is operating in the eastern Mediterranean,
near five US destroyers armed with cruise missiles that could soon be directed
against Syria as part of a "limited, precise" strike.
They stressed that the
USS San Antonio, an amphibious ship with several hundred US Marines on board,
was in the region for a different reason and there were no plans to put Marines
on the ground as part of any military action against Syria.
US officials to
participate in conference calls on Syria:
Secretary of State John
Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, and other senior U.S. national security
officials will hold conference calls about Syria on Saturday afternoon with the
Senate Democratic Caucus as well as the Senate Republican Conference, a White
House official said.
The calls, which will be unclassified, are
part of "the Administration's consultations regarding the Assad regime's
use of chemical weapons in Syria on August 21," the official said.
Director of National Intelligence James
Clapper and President Barack Obama's National Security Adviser Susan Rice as
well as Admiral James Winnefeld, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
will also participate, the official said.
Reactions:
Russia's President
Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that it would be "utter nonsense" for
the Syrian government to use chemical weapons when it was winning the war, and
urged US President Barack Obama not to attack Syrian forces.
"That is why I am
convinced that it the chemical attack is nothing more than a provocation by
those who want to drag other countries into the Syrian conflict, and who want
to win the support of powerful members of the international arena, especially
the United States," Putin told journalists.
This as a Syrian
security source told Agence France Presse that Damascus is expecting the attack
from the West "at any time," adding that the Syrian regime is ready
to respond.
REUTERS/AP/LBCI