[ 2013-09-06 ]

G20 'divided' on Syria as Power criticises Russia
World leaders meeting for the final day of the G20
summit in Russia remain divided over military
action in Syria.

Italian PM Enrico Letta said the splits in
opinion were confirmed at Thursday's working
dinner in St Petersburg.

A spokesman for the Russian presidency said a US
military strike on Syria would "drive another nail
into the coffin of international law".

At the UN, the US ambassador accused Russia of
holding the Security Council hostage by blocking
resolutions.

Samantha Power said the Security Council was no
longer a "viable path" for holding Syria
accountable for war crimes.

The US government accuses President Bashar
al-Assad's forces of killing 1,429 people in a
poison-gas attack in the Damascus suburbs on 21
August.

The UK says scientists at the Porton Down
research laboratories have found traces of sarin
gas on cloth and soil samples.

But Mr Assad has blamed rebels for the attack.
China and Russia, which have refused to agree to a
Security Council resolution against Syria, insist
any action without the UN would be illegal.

The US and France are the only nations at the G20
summit to commit to using force in Syria.

The United Nations says it needs another $3.3bn
(£2bn) to deal with the Syrian refugee crisis up
to the end of this year.

‘Divisions confirmed'

Ms Power told a news conference in New York:
"Even in the wake of the flagrant shattering of
the international norm against chemical weapons
use, Russia continues to hold the council hostage
and shirk its international responsibilities.

"What we have learned, what the Syrian people
have learned, is that the Security Council the
world needs to deal with this crisis is not the
Security Council we have."

US President Barack Obama is thought to be trying
at the G20 summit to build an international
coalition to back strikes against military targets
in Syria.

But differences of opinion became obvious when
world leaders - including Mr Obama and Russian
President Vladimir Putin - discussed Syria over
dinner on Thursday evening.

The Italian prime minister said in a tweet that
"the G20 has just now finished the dinner session,
at which the divisions about Syria were
confirmed".

President Putin's press spokesman, Dmitry Peskov,
said after the dinner that the G20 was split down
the middle, with some countries seeking hasty
action and others wanting the US to go through the
UN Security Council.
British sources say the leaders of France,
Turkey, Canada and the UK gave strong backing to
President Obama's call for military action. The UK
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said
the Turks put a "very strong argument about how
the world must respond to the use of chemical
weapons".

But correspondents in St Petersburg say opponents
of US military intervention appear to far
outnumber supporters within the G20.

And the BBC's Bridget Kendall says the views of
the G20 leaders on any US action could be the
least of Mr Obama's worries, as his real
difficulties might lie back in the US.

But correspondents in St Petersburg say opponents
of US military intervention appear to far
outnumber supporters within the G20.

And the BBC's Bridget Kendall says the views of
the G20 leaders on any US action could be the
least of Mr Obama's worries, as his real
difficulties might lie back in the US.

President Obama was nearly an hour late for
Thursday's G20 dinner. His aides said he had been
trying to find time during the summit to call US
members of Congress, who are due to vote next week
on whether to back Mr Obama's call for a military
strike.

Mr Obama also cancelled a trip to California on
Monday in order to lobby Congress, as a poll
commissioned by the BBC and ABC News suggested
more than one-third of Congress members were
undecided whether or not to back military action.

A majority of those who had made a decision said
they would vote against the president.

Syria's parliamentary speaker has written to the
speaker of the House of Representatives urging
members not to rush into an "irresponsible,
reckless action".

Source - BBC

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