Putin Says US Must Seek UN Approval for Any Strike

Russian President Vladimir Putin, aside from demanding convincing evidence against Syria, has warned the United States against taking one-sided action in Syria. Putin has also said that Russia “doesn’t exclude” the possibility of supporting a UN resolution authorizing military strikes, Aljazeera.net reported on Wednesday.

The Russian President has said that an endorsement would require “convincing” evidence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government has used chemical weapons against citizens. Putin also said the currently available evidence does not fulfill this criteria.

In a national television interview, Putin said it would be “absolutely absurd” for Assad’s forces to have used chemical weapons at a time when they were in the ascendency in the conflict, Aljazeera.net said.

In the same interview, Aljazeera.net reported Putin saying “From our viewpoint, it seems absolutely absurd that the armed forces, the regular armed forces, which are on the offensive today and in some areas have encircled the so-called rebels and are finishing them off, that in these conditions they would start using forbidden chemical weapons while realizing quite well that it could serve as a pretext for applying sanctions against them, including the use of force.”

The online news said figures vary regarding the alleged chemical weapons attack on August 21, with the US government saying that 1,429 people were killed by poison gas in the attack, while aid agencies putting that number to 355.

Al-Assad’s government has blamed the rebels on the said attack. The United Nations inspection team that examined the attack sites near Damascus, is currently waiting for the lab results on soil and tissue samples.

Putin has said “If there are data that the chemical weapons have been used, and used specifically by the regular army, this evidence should be submitted to the UN Security Council.” “And it ought to be convincing. It shouldn’t be based on some rumors and information obtained by special services through some kind of eavesdropping, some conversations and things like that.”

Putin has also cited experts who believed that the present evidence “doesn’t look convincing” raising the possibility that the armed opposition had “conducted a premeditated provocative action trying to give their sponsors a pretext for military intervention,” Aljazeera.net reported.

Putin has reportedly compared the evidence presented by the US administration so far to false data used by that country to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Aljazeera.net added.

“All these arguments turned out to be untenable, but they were used to launch a military action, which many in the US called a mistake. Did we forget about that?” Putin said.

In the interview, Putin did not “exclude” the possibility of the use of force by foreign countries against Syria, if there was enough evidence provided to the UN and that body sanctioned such an action, Aljazeera.net said.

Putin has said if there was clear proof of what weapons were used and who used them, Russia “will be ready to act in the most decisive and serious way.”

The Russian President has strongly cautioned the US against launching military action without UN approval, however, saying it would represent an aggression.

When asked as to what kind of evidence on chemical weapons use would convince Russia, Putin has said “it should be a deep and specific probe containing evidence that would be obvious and prove beyond doubt who did it and what means were used,” Aljazeera.net said Wednesday.

Putin also said Russia has provided some components of the S-300 air defence missile system to Syria but that the delivery had not been completed, Aljazeera.net reported.