Putin calls military force in Syria 'pointless' in op-ed

WASHINGTON. September 12. KAZINFORM - A day after President Barack Obama made his case for both military intervention and diplomacy in Syria, world powers worked Wednesday to defuse the crisis, CNN informs.
None
None

Syria has agreed to a Russian plan to give up its chemical weapons , a move that could forestall international military strikes and possibly give diplomacy some positive traction.

But the bloody conflict in Syria continues to rage, and roadblocks and questions remain as to what's next for the war-ravaged Middle Eastern nation.

Latest developments Wednesday:-- Using a New York Times op-ed "to speak directly to the American people and their political leaders ... at a time of insufficient communication between our societies," Russian President Vladimir Putin warned about the ramifications to the Middle East and the world if countries bypass the United Nations and pursue military action.

"The potential strike by the United States against Syria ... will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria's borders," Putin wrote in the editorial, which appeared online Wednesday night. "A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism.

"It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa. It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance."

-- Calling the ongoing civil war an "internal conflict, fueled by foreign weapons supplied to the opposition," Putin cautioned against siding with an opposition in Syria he says includes "more than enough (al) Qaeda fighters and extremists of all stripes." (He did not mention the fact Russia has long supplied arms to Syria's government.)

-- Russia, its leader said, is "not protecting the Syrian government" but rather favors "a compromise plan." Military action against the Syrian government without U.N. Security Council approval "is unacceptable under the United Nations charter and would constitute an act of aggression," according to Putin.

-- Disputing assertions by Obama and others, Putin said "there is every reason to believe (chemical weapons were) used not by the Syrian army, but by opposition forces to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons, who would be siding with the fundamentalists."

-- Using military force has "proved ineffective and pointless" in places like Afghanistan, Libya and Iraq, Russia's president claimed in the op-ed. He surmised that civilian casualties in Syria, if there were strikes, would be "inevitable."

-- Putin ended his piece by saying that he and Obama share "a growing trust." Yet he also challenged Obama's case for American exceptionalism in his speech Tuesday night, saying, "It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation." "We are all different," Putin concluded, "but when we ask for the Lord's blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal."

Currently reading