Syria has asked the UN to try to “prevent any aggression” against it, state news agency SANA said yesterday, as the US weighs military action against Damascus.
“The Syrian government calls on the UN secretary-general to assume his responsibilities ... and to make efforts to prevent any aggression against Syria,” the agency said, quoting a letter from Syria’s UN representative, Bashar al-Jaafari.
The letter also urged the UN to help seek a “peaceful political solution to the crisis” in Syria, where more than 110,000 people have been killed in violence since an uprising against the regime began in March 2011.
US President Barack Obama is seeking approval from US Congress for military action against Syria in response to an alleged chemical attack on Damascus suburbs on Aug. 21 that killed hundreds.
Much of the international community, including the US, Britain and France, has accused the Syrian regime of carrying out the attack, a charge that the government in Damascus denies.
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday said Syria used sarin gas and France was yesterday set to provide what it says is clear evidence the regime was behind the alleged chemical attack.
“The Syrian government repeats once again that it has never used chemical weapons,” al-Jaafari wrote in the letter.
“The world was expecting the United States to play its role as a sponsor of peace ... by preparing seriously for the Geneva conference on Syria, and not as a country that uses military force against those who oppose its policies,” he added.
Earlier in the year, the US and Russia said they would work to organize a peace conference in Geneva to seek a political solution to the Syrian conflict.
However, the efforts have gradually fallen apart, with leaders announcing successive delays to the mooted meeting.
Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov yesterday said that military action against Damascus would put off chances for a peace conference “a long time, if not forever.”
Russia said it was totally unconvinced by the evidence presented by the US and its allies of the alleged chemical attack outside Damascus.
“What we were shown before and most recently by our American partners, as well as the British and the French, absolutely does not convince us,” Lavrov said, adding that there were “many doubts” about images of the alleged attack posted on the Internet.
Arab League foreign ministers urged the UN and international community to take “deterrent” action, and blamed the regime for the alleged chemical weapons assault.
A defiant Syrian President Bashar al-Assad insisted that Syria would confront any military action.
With all eyes on Washington, Obama — as well as US Vice President Joe Biden and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough — made individual calls to members of Congress on Sunday, the official said. More were planned for yesterday, a federal holiday.
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday decided to shelve proposed legislation that would give elected officials full control over their stipends, saying it would wait for a consensus to be reached before acting. KMT Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) last week proposed amendments to the Organic Act of the Legislative Yuan (立法院組織法) and the Regulations on Allowances for Elected Representatives and Subsidies for Village Chiefs (地方民意代表費用支給及村里長事務補助費補助條例), which would give legislators and councilors the freedom to use their allowances without providing invoices for reimbursement. The proposal immediately drew criticism, amid reports that several legislators face possible charges of embezzling fees intended to pay
RSS