WORLD_ Syria urges US to show 'wisdom' in vote

Syria urges US to show 'wisdom' in vote

Sky NEWS
Updated: 06:16, Monday September 2, 2013


Syria has urged US politicians to show 'wisdom' in their vote on a proposed military strike on Damascus, after US President Barack Obama decided to seek congressional approval.

Labelling Obama 'hesitant, disappointed and confused', Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad again denied his regime was behind an alleged poison gas attack on August 21 that precipitated calls for military action.

'We ask the US Congress to show wisdom,' Muqdad told reporters in Damascus, in the regime's first reaction to Obama's Saturday announcement.

Muqdad also launched a broadside against France, which supports military action against Damascus, accusing its leaders of being 'irresponsible' and trying to dupe their own people.

Syria's opposition for its part expressed disappointment that Obama had put on hold his plans for military action, but said it was confident US lawmakers would green-light a strike.

To general surprise, Obama on Saturday broke with decades of precedent to announce that he would seek approval from Congress for action against Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons.

This effectively pushed military action back until at least September 9, when US lawmakers return from their summer recess.

Obama insists he reserves the right to strike regardless of Congress's decision, and a White House official says the pause will also allow him time to build international support.

Officials said Obama would lobby world powers on the sidelines of the St Petersburg G20 summit next week, while at home the White House was reaching out to politicians.

But the toughest battle, and perhaps the most dangerous for Obama's credibility, may yet be with his own former colleagues in Congress, where support for strikes is far from assured.

Obama's Democrats control the Senate but the House of Representatives is in the hands of his Republican foes and both sides are divided on the issue, making the outcome uncertain.

US Secretary of State John Kerry meanwhile said said tests on hair and blood samples taken from the emergency workers who rushed to the scene of the Damascus attack on August 21 had shown indications of sarin.

He said the samples had been given to the US independently, outside of an outgoing UN probe.

Washington has squarely blamed the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad for the attack, which it says killed more than 1400 people including hundreds of children.

Inhaled or absorbed through the skin, the gas kills by crippling the respiratory centre of the central nervous system and paralyses the muscles around the lungs.

The combination results in death by suffocation, and sarin can contaminate food or water supplies, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which notes that antidotes exist.

'Sarin is 26 times more deadly than cyanide gas. Just a pinprick-sized droplet will kill a human,' according to the World Health Organisation.

Exposure symptoms include nausea and violent headaches, blurred vision, drooling, muscle convulsions, respiratory arrest and loss of consciousness, the CDC says.

Nerve agents are generally quick-acting and require only simple chemical techniques and inexpensive, readily available ingredients to manufacture.

Inhalation of a high dose - say 200 milligrams of sarin - may cause death 'within a couple of minutes', with no time even for symptoms to develop, according to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.



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