"Follow me down the road to Damascus"
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Isaiah 17:1
The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
UN says inspectors shot at in Damascus
Team "deliberately shot at multiple times by unidentified snipers" while on way to site of alleged chemical attack.
Last Modified: 26 Aug 2013 13:07
Unidentified snipers in Syria have shot at and damaged a vehicle being used by UN chemical weapons investigators trying to reach the site of a suspected poison gas attack.
The UN convoy of six vehicles came under fire on Monday in the buffer zone between rebel and government territory near Damascus as it travelled towards Ghouta, the site of the suspected attack last Wednesday.
"The first vehicle of the investigation team was deliberately shot at multiple times by unidentified snipers in the buffer-zone area," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said. No one was injured and a replacement vehicle was obtained, he added.
Western powers claim that potential evidence in the area has probably been destroyed by heavy government shelling over the past five days.
The six-car convoy of chemical-weapons experts wearing blue UN body armour was accompanied by a car of security forces as well as an ambulance.
News agencies later reported that the convoy had continued and had reached Moadamiyeh, one of the areas hit by the alleged chemical attack. Al Jazeera could not confirm those reports.
The alleged chemical-weapons attack in Ghouta killed 355 people and injured thousands, according to the aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres.
The UN announced on Sunday that the Syrian government and rebels had agreed to observe a ceasefire in the Ghouta area during the visit.
It said the rebels and government were responsible for the safety of the inspectors on the ground.
The agreement between the Syrian foreign minister and the head of the UN delegation "is effective immediately and it will allow UN delegation to investigate allegations of using chemical weapons on August 22 in Damascus suburbs", Syrian state TV reported.
On the diplomatic front, Francois Hollande, the French president, told his US counterpart Barack Obama on Sunday that he concluded that the Syrian regime was behind the attack.
"The two presidents agreed to stay in close contact to arrive at a joint response to this unprecedented aggression," Hollande's office said.
William Hague, the UK foreign secretary, has said that any evidence of a chemical attack may have been destroyed.
"The fact is that much of the evidence could have been destroyed by that artillery bombardment," he said on Sunday.
Remarks of William Hague, the British foreign secretary, on the alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria
The government of Bashar al-Assad has denied responsibility for Wednesday's attack and blamed the rebels fighting Assad's forces of the same.
The rebels have held the regime forces responsible for the attack.
The alleged chemical weapons attack has spurred calls for global action against Assad's government.
The US government has been under mounting pressure to act, with Obama having defined the use chemical weapons as a "red line' for Syria.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/08/201382611112774504.html
AP Interview: Official says Syria to defend itself
Posted on Monday, 08.26.13
By LEE KEATH
Associated Press
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad speaks during an interview with the Associated Press at his office, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, Aug. 26, 2013. Mekdad said Syria is cooperating with a U.N. team that is investigating an alleged chemical attack last week and vowed the country will defend itself if the U.S. or others launch military action against it. Hassan Ammar / AP Photo
DAMASCUS, Syria -- A senior Syrian official said Monday that his country will defend itself against any international attack and will not be an easy target as the U.S. and other countries heat up rhetoric in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack last week on a rebel-held neighborhood of the Syrian capital.
In an interview with The Associated Press in Damascus, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad said airstrikes or other action against Syria would also trigger "chaos" and threaten worldwide peace and security.
He spoke Monday as support for an international response was mounting if it is confirmed that President Bashar Assad's troops were responsible for the Aug. 21 attack, which activists say killed hundreds.
The United States has said that there is little doubt that Assad's regime was responsible for the assault, and U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Monday the Obama administration is "considering all different options."
Speaking with reporters after meeting with his Indonesian counterpart, Hagel said, "If there is any action taken it will be in concert with the international community and within the framework of a legal justification."
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also said that in the event the chemical attack was confirmed, "The only option that I can't imagine would be to do nothing."
The Syrian foreign minister, however, warned Syria was ready to respond.
"There will be no international military intervention," Mikdad said in the interview at his office. "If individual countries want to pursue aggressive and adventurous policies, the natural answer ... would be that Syria, which has been fighting against terrorism for almost three years, will also defend itself against any international attack."
"They will bear the responsibility for such an attack, which will result in killing thousands of innocent people, as happened in Libya, and committing criminal actions against a sovereign country," Mikdad added. "Syria will not be an easy target."
Mikdad did not elaborate on how Syria might defend itself, but he said such an attack would trigger "chaos in the entire world."
He said the U.N. should be given a chance to investigate before any judgment is made, "not strike and then start judging."
"The team is going to do its work. It is not the business of the United States to judge because the final judgment will be that of the team. The team knows what to do," he said.
Under the negotiated mandate, however, the team can only investigate whether chemical weapons were used, not place blame.
Mikdad spoke shortly after the U.N. said unidentified snipers opened fire at one of the U.N. vehicles carrying a team investigating the alleged use of chemical weapons. The Syrian government accused the rebels of firing at the team, while activists and the main Syrian opposition group in exile said a pro-government militia was behind the attack.
The foreign minister also said the position of the French government is "shameful and full of lies and irresponsible" and said the same applies to the position of the U.K. and other European countries "which have become promoters of terrorism."
Mikdad said he is "100 percent confident" that neither the Syrian army nor anyone who is part of the Syrian government used chemical weapons, adding the Syrian regime "will never use them against its own people, if it has them."
"If such a thing has happened, then it is the armed groups," he said.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/26/3586383/ap-interview-official-says-syria.html
Comments
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don't worry, guys, Obama was elected to keep us out of conflicts in the Middle East
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US is just trying to get closer to Iran and secure as many countries surrounding it as possible
Also Iran has oil
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They are weighing their options before they make a wrong move like Bush did
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The US needs to learn to leave people alone and quit with their barbaric ways. You have no reason to attack Iran and take their oil and put in a puppet leader. You are greedy and primal, quit it.
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Obama's love of bloodshed, chaos, and killing of people all over the world knows no limits.....what a pathetic man Obama has become. What a shame.
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Hopefully Obama gives his Nobel Peace Prize back, his ? made sellout ass doesn't deserve it
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kingblaze84 wrote: »Obama's love of bloodshed, chaos, and killing of people all over the world knows no limits.....what a pathetic man Obama has become. What a shame.
[img]http://mydailycomplaint.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/remember-that-not-tyrants-words-obama-? -politics-1344396322.jpg[/img]
This pathetic?
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Rage O'holic wrote: »kingblaze84 wrote: »Obama's love of bloodshed, chaos, and killing of people all over the world knows no limits.....what a pathetic man Obama has become. What a shame.
[img]http://mydailycomplaint.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/remember-that-not-tyrants-words-obama-? -politics-1344396322.jpg[/img]
This pathetic?
Yes that pathetic. I wouldn't say Obama is as bad as ? but Obama definitely has very evil intentions all over the Middle East. I personally think America has bombed and ruined enough lives in the Middle East, but Obama obviously doesn't think so. Let's see how many innocent civilians Obama's missile strikes ? in Syria beginning Thursday. -
With Syria dropping poison gas on its own people what should Obama do?
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^^^Obama should mind his own damn business....he's not becoming a hero around the world by bombing people all over the Muslim/Arab world, it's making it more popular to hate America. Wasn't he elected to help create peace between the world and America?
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? oil already...
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How does turning a blind eye to someone using weapons of mass destruction on a civilian center help create peace?
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But no the Bible isn't relevant for today.......SMH
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DoUwant2go2Heaven? wrote: »But no the Bible isn't relevant for today.......SMH
The Bible isn't relevant for the most part these days. That's an excellent thing, considering all the evil things the Bible supports.
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The bush administration ? up because of their ways to engage conflict.
The obama administration has no choice but intervening now imo -
The bush administration ? up because of their ways to engage conflict.
The obama administration has no choice but intervening now imo
Why should Obama intervene though? We are intervening in Afghanistan and get nothing but hatred for it. We intervened in Libya and our consulate got blown up with 4 dead Americans. The hatred for America is so deep in Libya that the FBI and other agencies cannot send agents there to investigate the crime scene or the area around it.
Anywhere in the Middle East where America butts in, it usually back fires. The war in Iraq has been a disaster as well. Time for Obama to mind his own ? business.
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That turkey ? ass ? Obama gona get us into WW3
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Why don't you guys invent a energy source and I'll get the Africans around the world to help support it.
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That turkey ? ass ? Obama gona get us into WW3
LOL seems like it. Obama at this point doesn't know what the ? he is doing. He's a slave and straight ? to the military industrial complex. He doesn't have the ? to stand up against them, the way JFK and MLK Jr stood up against them. It seems every week I say this, but just when I thought my respect for Obama couldn't get any lower, it finds a way to get lower anyway. Obama needs to shove his Nobel Peace Prize up his half cracka sellout ? ass
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MzzKlapBak wrote: »Also Iran has oilEmperorRises wrote: »The US needs to learn to leave people alone and quit with their barbaric ways. You have no reason to attack Iran and take their oil and put in a puppet leader. You are greedy and primal, quit it.