President Bashar al-Assad insists that Syria will face down any military action, as Damascus residents mocked his US counterpart Barack Obama whose administration stepped up charges the regime used sarin gas.
US Secretary of State John Kerry upped the ante, claiming Washington has proof that sarin gas was used by Assad’s regime in a Damascus attack on August 21.
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In Cairo, Arab League foreign ministers urged the United Nations and international community to take “deterrent” action, while blaming the regime for the attack.
“The United Nations and the international community are called upon to assume their responsibilities in line with the UN Charter and international law by taking the necessary deterrent measures,” they said in a statement.
Syria’s opposition National Coalition head earlier pleaded with the ministers to back a US-led strike, while Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said failure to do so would bolster Assad’s forces to “pursue its crimes”.
But Iran warned the US against attacking its ally Syria.
Assad, whose regime has faced an uprising since March 2011 that a watchdog says has cost 110,000 lives, came out fighting.
“Syria … is capable of facing up to any external aggression just as it faces up to internal aggression every day, in the form of terrorist groups and those that support them,” SANA news agency quoted him as saying.
Assad’s comments were his first since Obama on Saturday committed the fate of US action to a vote in Congress.
This effectively pushed military action back until at least September 9, when US lawmakers return from their summer recess.
Obama said he had decided that alleged chemical weapons attacks on Damascus suburbs last month that Washington says killed more than 1,400 people was so heinous that he would respond with a limited strike.
To press the case, Kerry told US televisions that hair and blood samples given to the United States from emergency workers on the scene of the August 21 attacks showed signs of the powerful sarin nerve gas.
In Damascus, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad urged US lawmakers to show “wisdom” in their vote, while labelling Obama “hesitant, disappointed and confused”.
On the streets, residents of the Syrian capital were scornful of the president’s decision to back down from immediate action.
“He who talks a lot doesn’t act,” said Souad, mocking the US leader as a “coward” for delaying the decision.
“Obama is a coward. He didn’t strike because he knows that our President Bashar (al-Assad) is all-powerful,” said the employee of nationality electricity firm Ferdaws, in the northeast of the capital.
