Syria's President Assad warns of retaliation if U.S. strikes
Channel: peoplestandup.ca
Date: 09/09/2013

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned of possible reprisal attacks if the United States attacks Syria, saying that if there were military strikes, Americans can -expect every action.-China and the United States should take the lead in upholding the UN charter to "preserve and protect the basic norms of international relations and oppose any use of chemical weapons," Wang said, according to a statement on the Foreign Ministry's website.

The remarks come after Chinese President Xi Jinping told U.S. President Barack Obama at a G20 summit in Russia on Friday that a military strike could not solve the problem and that a political solution was the correct way out.

China has repeatedly called for an impartial investigation by UN chemical weapons inspectors into the attack in Syria, and has warned against pre-judging the results. It has also said that whoever used chemical weapons had to be held accountable.
'Turn it over, all of it'

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could avoid a military strike by turning over all his chemical weapons within a week but immediately made clear he was sure that would never happen.
When asked by a reporter whether there was anything Assad's government could do or offer to stop any attack, Kerry said:
"Sure, he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week — turn it over, all of it without delay and allow the full and total accounting [of it] but he isn't about to do it and it can't be done."

A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department later said Kerry was speaking rhetorically — making a point about the "impossibility" of co-operation by Assad.

Assad's comments came as part of a television interview with CBS conducted in Damascus in which he also denied involvement in an alleged Aug. 21 attack involving chemical weapons.

He said that if there were U.S. attacks on Syria in response, the United States -should expect everything.-

Asked if he was making a threat of a direct military response to any such attack, Assad was vague.

-Not necessarily from the government,- he said at one point. -It's not only the government ... in this region. You have different parties, you have different factions, you have different ideology.-
Assad added in the same interview that any strike against his regime will provide -direct support- an -al-Qaeda offshoot,- an apparent reference to militants, linked to the extremist group, who have aligned with the Syrian opposition.

Russia and Syria both urged the United States on Monday to focus on efforts to convene a peace conference and not on military action, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks with Syria's foreign minister.

Lavrov said a U.S. military strike on Syria could lead to the spread of terrorism, and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem accused President Barack Obama of backing terrorists, drawing comparisons with the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

    Read about Canadians fighting on the front lines in Syria
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    Read Neil Macdonald on Obama's indecision and strained U.S. credibility

China, meanwhile, urged the U.S. to proceed with extreme caution and return to the United Nations to discuss Syria after Washington said it was not seeking Security Council approval for action in response to a chemical weapons attack last month.

The U.S. and France say forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad were behind the attack in which more than 1,400 are estimated to have been killed, and that they are considering air strikes to try to deter him from using such weapons again.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied that he was behind the attack, and recently said the evidence was not conclusive that there had been such an attack, CBS reported on Sunday on its news program Face the Nation.
China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said relevant countries should -think thrice- before acting and exercise -extreme caution.-
The U.S. -should return to the United Nations Security Council framework to seek consensus and appropriately handle the Syria issue,- Wang told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in a telephone call late on Sunday night
The use of chemical weapons has long been identified as one of the gravest crimes that can be committed, yet their use in Syria seems now to be in little doubt, even if all the circumstances and responsibilities remain to be clarified," Pillay told the Geneva-based council.
UN inspectors are likely to hand in their report later this week while the U.S. Congress debates whether to allow limited strikes on Syria.