Syria denies former defense minister defects state TV

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Syrian state television said on Wednesday former defense minister Ali Habib had not left the country, denying reports of his defection.

"There is no truth to what the media has reported on the travel of former defense minister Ali Habib Mahmoud outside of Syria and he is still in his home," Syrian state television quoted an official source as saying.

A senior member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition had earlier told Reuters that Habib had defected and was now in Turkey.

This as Syrian vice Foreign Minister Faisal al-Meqdad reiterated his call for reconciliation, warning of the repercussions of a US attack on Syria.

He pointed out that Damascus would strike back not only at Israel, but also at Syria's neighbors Jordan and Turkey if they take part in any US-led operation.

"Once the war starts nobody can control what will happen," he said.

"We believe that any attack against Syria will definitely result in chaos in the entire region if not beyond,” he added.

US President Barack Obama has won the backing of key figures in the US Congress, including Republicans, in his call for limited US strikes on Syria to punish President Bashar al-Assad for his suspected use of chemical weapons against civilians.

Leaders of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee said they reached an agreement on a draft authorization for the use of military force in Syria, paving the way for a vote by the committee on Wednesday. However, the draft is much narrower than the request made by Obama and includes a provision barring the use of US troops on the ground.

John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor both pledged their support for military action after the meeting. Votes are expected to be held in the Senate and House next week, with the Republican-led House presenting the tougher challenge for Obama.

For his part, US Senator John McCain, a leading Republican voice on military affairs, said on Wednesday he does not support a Senate panel's draft resolution authorizing the use of force in Syria.

"There are a number of people who are unhappy," McCain told reporters on Capitol Hill.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee draft was narrower than the request made by President Barack Obama, and the panel, of which McCain is a member, may vote on it later on Wednesday. McCain has long favored US intervention in the Syrian civil war.

Among other provisions, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee draft, which was obtained by Reuters, sets a 60-day limit on US military action in Syria, with a possibility of a single 30-day extension subject to conditions.

Subsequently, President Barack Obama is opening a three-day overseas trip with a stop in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. Obama's visit marks the first bilateral meeting of a US president to Sweden.

The northern European country was added to Obama's itinerary after he canceled plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow ahead of the Group of 20 summit. Obama will still travel to St. Petersburg, Russia, for the G-20 meetings after leaving Stockholm.

Meanwhile a senior diplomat says the UN chemical weapons inspection team that left Syria with biological samples and other materials is speeding up its analysis and hopes to have it done in two or three weeks.

The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his discussions with top UN officials were private, says the expedited analysis will shave about a week off the processing time.

The UN team last week was in Syria to determine whether chemical weapons were used Aug. 21 in a Damascus suburb, and if so, what types were used.

On another note, a Hezbollah official said in a phone call intercepted by German intelligence that President Bashar al-Assad had made a mistake in ordering a poison gas attack last month, suggesting the Syrian leader's culpability, participants at a security briefing for German lawmakers said.

According to participants at a confidential meeting on Monday, attended by Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, the head of the BND foreign intelligence agency told the lawmakers its indications of Assad's responsibility for the Aug 21 incident included an intercepted phone call believed to be between a high ranking member of the Hezbollah Lebanese Shi'ite militant group and the Iranian embassy in Damascus.

In the phone call, the Hezbollah official says Assad's order for the attack was a mistake and that he was losing his nerve, the participants reported the BND briefing as saying. Both Iran and Hezbollah support Assad.

Reactions:

France's Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Wednesday if there was no response to the chemical attack in Syria it risked sending Iran the wrong message on its nuclear program.

"To not act would be to put in danger peace and security in the entire region. What credibility would our international commitments against non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons stand for?" Ayrault told a parliamentary debate on Syria.

"What message would this send to other regimes, and I am thinking like you of Iran and North Korea? The message would be clear: You can continue." Iran rejects Western accusations that it is seeking to build the atomic bomb.

Earlier, French officials said a punitive military response would help shift the balance in a 2 year old civil war that was tipping in favor of Bashar Assad.

"If you want a political solution you have to move the situation. If there's no sanction, Bashar Assad will say 'that's fine, I'll continue what I'm doing,'" France's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, told France Info radio Wednesday morning, hours ahead of the debate.

Separately, Russia is sending a missile cruiser to the east Mediterranean to take over the navy's operations in the region, Interfax quoted a military source as saying. The ship was expected to reach the east Mediterranean, where it will join other ships in Russia's regional naval unit, in approximately ten days, said the unnamed source.

This comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia may approve a military operation in Syria if evidence shows that Damascus carried out chemical weapons attacks, but only if the operation is conducted with UN approval.

In an interview with AP and Russia's First Channel, posted on the Kremlin website on Wednesday, Putin also said the video of an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack outside of Damascus could have been fabricated by groups "connected with al Qaeda".

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Wednesday the Syrian refugee crisis may worsen if there is no international reaction in response to the alleged chemical weapons attack last month.

"If the same trend continues... and there is no international reaction to it, we are scared neighboring countries face much bigger numbers of refugees," he said at a news conference in Geneva.

On the field:

Syrian state media said that a member of the national taekwondo team has been killed in a mortar attack in Damascus.

State news agency SANA says 27-year-old Mohammed Ali Neimeh died when a mortar shell hit a sports hall in the Syrian capital on Wednesday. Neimeh had been training for an upcoming Islamic Solidarity Tournament in Indonesia this week, SANA said.

Neimeh has been a member of the national team since 2006. While he has never qualified for the Olympics, SANA said he was a Syrian sporting hero for winning medals at international tournaments, including a bronze in the 2010 West Asian Championships.

Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad have frequently fired mortars on residential districts of the capital to disrupt life in the capital that the regime tries hard to portray as detached from the bloody civil war that has raged for more than two years.

REUTERS/AP

Syria denies former defense minister defects - state TV