World Leaders Fail to Find Consensus on Syria at G20
The Moscow
Times
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/world-leaders-fail-to-find-consensus-on-syria-at-g20/485683.html
ST. PETERSBURG — The world's
leading powers made little progress at the G20 summit Friday toward a unified
position on addressing the civil war in Syria, as U.S. President Barack
Obama failed to convince many of his counterparts of the necessity to strike
militarily without UN support in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack
by the Syrian government.
But Obama said he was encouraged by the talks and said there
was a growing notion that "the world cannot stand idly by" as the
bloody conflict drags on.
The U.S. president met perhaps the most fervent resistance
to a strike from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said the United States
would be acting "outside the law" if Obama were to order military
action against the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"I remind you that the use of force by a sovereign
government is possible only when it is in the form of self-defense — and the
United States, as is known, is not being attacked by Syria — and, secondly, by
a resolution of the UN Security Council," Putin said, speaking
emphatically, at a news conference at the summit's close.
"As one of the participants of our discussion yesterday
put it, those who act otherwise are putting themselves outside the law."
Putin, a staunch Assad ally, said that he and Obama met
briefly about Syria on the sidelines of the summit — Putin's foreign policy
advisor Yury Ushakov told reporters that the meeting lasted around 20 minutes —
but that their positions did not change.
"It was a very substantive, constructive, friendly
conversation. In a friendly setting, in any case. We each maintained our
positions, but there is dialogue," Putin said, adding that they agreed to
have Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry resume talks on the issue in the near future.
After the White House cancelled a bilateral meeting between
Obama and Putin originally scheduled to take place before the summit, over
Russia's granting of asylum to leaker Edward Snowden and a lack of progress on
other issues, there had been no scheduled meeting between the U.S. and Russian
leaders.
Although the economy is typically the focus of G20 meetings
of top world leaders, the debate over the U.S. proposal to strike Assad's
forces stole the spotlight over two days of talks at the Peterhof palace
estate.
In conversations with his counterparts, Obama continued his
efforts to gain support for military action without a UN Security Council
resolution, but he met with opposition from many camps, including the EU
leadership and top UN officials.
Emphasizing the fractured nature of the world's top powers
on the issue, Putin listed which countries supported and opposed the U.S. proposal
of a military strike. In support, he said, were the U.S.,
Turkey, Canada, Saudi
Arabia and France, with British Prime Minister
David Cameron also in that camp, although British parliament voted against the
plan. Putin said those against a strike included Russia, China, India,
Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Italy, and he noted that Germany
had ruled out participating in military action.
Perhaps the strongest words of support for the U.S. plan came
from French President Francois Hollande, who repeatedly referred to Assad as a
dictator and argued that a military strike could have a significant impact.
"There is no military solution for the Syria crisis,
but a short military action can [speed up] the political solution,"
Hollande said at a news conference.
Hollande also said that every country at the summit
acknowledged that chemical weapons were used in the Aug. 21 attack in a Damascus suburb.
Obama may have been at a disadvantage trying to convince
leaders to oppose Putin's position while on Russian soil. Looking worn out at
his press conference after days of travel and tough negotiations, the U.S. leader acknowledged that Russia was not
likely to come around to his position. He said many other countries would be
releasing statements regarding Syria.
Obama also said Russia
and other nations would eventually have to put aside their differences and work
to find a political solution to the Syria conflict.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has been a less visible
opponent of military action in Syria
than Putin, also met with Obama and reiterated China's position.
"A political solution is the only right way out for the
Syria
crisis, and a military strike cannot solve the problem from the root," Xi
told Obama, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
The Chinese leader also said all countries should abide by
international law and reject the use of chemical weapons, and he renewed calls
for a peace conference between the Assad regime and Syrian rebels that the U.S. and Russia,
together with the UN, had been trying to arrange in Geneva.
Lavrov said that a military strike not approved by the UN
Security Council would foil those efforts.
"Many responsible governments are gaining a very clear
understanding that the use of force in contravention of the UN Security Council
would, in essence, put an end to efforts to achieve a political solution, to
convene the Geneva-2 peace conference that [UN Special Envoy] Lakhdar Brahimi
is directly working on," Lavrov told journalists after a working breakfast
at the summit, Interfax reported.
Leaders also remained split over who was to blame for the
alleged chemical weapons attack last month that killed hundreds of Syrians.
A group of 10 nations including Britain,
Italy and Japan issued a statement saying that they, like the
U.S.,
believed that Assad was behind the attack, while Putin repeated the Russian
view that it was a "provocation" by a militant group seeking
assistance from the West.
While political talks occupied the U.S. and Russian leaders, military posturing continued
in the Mediterranean Sea, where U.S.
and Russian ships have been stationed. On Friday, a Russian Navy representative
told Interfax that four ships had traveled through the Dardanelles in Turkey heading for the eastern Mediterranean.
The ships included landing vessels Novocherkassk
and Minsk, and
a reconnaissance vessel, the Priazovye.
Putin said during his press conference that Russia would assist Syria
if military action was taken against Assad's forces, noting that Russia already
delivered arms and economic aid. He said he hoped to provide more humanitarian
assistance to civilians, "who have ended up in a very difficult situation
in that country."
No strike on Syria
is expected by U.S.
forces at least until after the U.S. Congress decides, perhaps this week,
whether to back it. Obama refused to say how he would act if Congress votes
against the action, while Hollande said that if the U.S. Congress did not
approve an attack, France would not strike Syria alone but would expand support
for the rebels opposing Assad.
Obama said he plans on Tuesday to address the American
people, many of whom are war-weary after extended conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, on the issue.
Obama Stymied in Bid to Rally World Leaders on Syria Strike
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/07/world/middleeast/obama-syria-strike.html?ref=global-home&_r=0
STRELNA, Russia — President Obama ran into an impasse on
Friday in his bid to rally international backing for a military strike on Syria
as world leaders wrapped up a summit meeting here remaining deeply divided over
the right response to what the Americans have called the deadliest nerve gas
attack in decades.
After a dinner debate that lasted into the early morning
hours of Friday, Mr. Obama emerged with a few supporters but no consensus, as
other leaders urged him not to attack without United Nations permission, which
is not forthcoming. Instead, the president had to resign himself to generalized
statements of concern over the use of chemical weapons.
The failure to forge
a stronger coalition here in the face of opposition from the Russian host,
President Vladimir V. Putin, raised the risks even further for Mr. Obama as he
headed home to lobby Congress to give him the backing his international peers
would not. It also left Mr. Obama in the awkward position of defending his
right to take action largely alone if necessary after campaigning against what
he portrayed as the unilateralist foreign policy of his predecessor, George W.
Bush.
Mr. Obama
acknowledged that he had a “hard sell” with Congress and announced that he
would deliver a televised address to the nation Tuesday evening from the White
House.
“Failing to respond
to this breach of this international norm would send a signal to rogue nations,
authoritarian regimes and terrorist organizations that they can use W.M.D. and
not pay a consequence,” he said at a news conference, using the initials for weapons
of mass destruction. “And that’s not a world we want to live in.”
But much of the
world, at least as represented at the Group of 20 meeting here in this St. Petersburg suburb,
did not favor Mr. Obama’s proposed course of action. Mr. Putin said a majority
of the leaders joined him in opposing a military strike independent of United
Nations approval, including those from Argentina,
Brazil, China, Germany,
India, Indonesia, Italy
and South Africa.
Citing remarks by
Jacob Zuma, the South African president, Mr. Putin said: “ 'Small
countries in today’s world in general are feeling increasingly vulnerable and
unprotected. There is an impression any superpower at any moment at its
discretion may use force.’ And he’s right.”
The only countries that supported Mr. Obama’s plan, the
Russian leader said, were Canada,
France, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, all nations that were on
Mr. Obama’s side when he arrived here on Thursday.
Trying to counter the impression of isolation, the White
House arranged for a joint statement including those allies as well as
Australia, Britain, Italy, Japan, Spain and South Korea condemning the Aug. 21
chemical weapons attack in the suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus, which
according to American intelligence agencies, killed more than 1,400 people.
“We call for a strong
international response to this grave violation of the world’s rules and
conscience that will send a clear message that this kind of atrocity can never
be repeated,” the statement said. “Those who perpetrated these crimes must be
held accountable.” Still, the statement did not explicitly endorse military
action.
But Mr. Putin pointed
to a statement issued by Pope Francis on Thursday opposing military strikes and
cited polls showing that the citizens of most countries, including the United States,
also did not favor an American-led strike. “I can assure you — and the latest
polls say this as well — the overwhelming majority of the populations in these
countries is on our side,” he said, his voice rising combatively.
Even as Mr. Putin ardently argued against an American-led
intervention, Russia’s
Navy continued preparations in the event of an attack. It has already
dispatched at least four warships to the Mediterranean Sea, including three
that passed through the Bosporus on Thursday,
two landing ships and a destroyer.
Russian news agencies on Friday reported that additional
ships would join the armada, but not until later in September. Mr. Putin’s
chief of staff, Sergei B. Ivanov, told reporters that the landing vessels were
being sent in case it was necessary to evacuate Russian citizens from Syria.
Russia’s
deputy defense minister, Anatoly I. Antonov, said on Thursday that the ships
would not intervene against American and other NATO warships that have also
assembled in the region. “We don’t intend, either directly or indirectly, to
take part in a possible regional conflict,” he said, according to the Web site
of the Ministry of Defense.
Speaking with
reporters as he was about to end his three-day overseas trip, Mr. Obama
repeatedly refused to say whether he would abide by the Congressional vote he
asked for authorizing the use of force against Syria if lawmakers say no.
“You’re not getting
any direct response,” he said. But Antony Blinken, his principal deputy
national security adviser, told NPR that while the president maintains that he
has the authority to act regardless of Congress, “it’s neither his desire nor
his intention to use that authority absent Congress backing him.”
The Syria
dispute came to dominate the G-20 meeting and underscored the difficulty Mr.
Obama has faced with Mr. Putin in recent months. After Russia gave temporary asylum to Edward J.
Snowden, the National Security Agency contractor who disclosed secret American
surveillance programs, Mr. Obama canceled a separate one-on-one meeting with
Mr. Putin in Moscow.
But the two ended up talking on the sideline of the group
session on Friday, mainly about their disagreement over Syria. Mr.
Obama said Mr. Snowden’s case did not really come up. “It was a candid and
constructive conversation, which characterizes my relationship with him,” Mr.
Obama said.
For his part, Mr. Putin said the two leaders agreed to
disagree during a friendly encounter on Thursday that lasted more than 20
minutes.
“We hear each other
and understand the arguments,” he said. “We simply don’t agree with them. I
don’t agree with his arguments and he doesn’t agree with mine, but we hear and
try to analyze.”
He added that they
did agree that Syria
ultimately needed a political settlement, and delegated the question to Russia’s
foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, and Secretary of State John Kerry. In May,
the two officials announced an effort to begin negotiations for a settlement in
Syria, to be held in Geneva, but that effort
has since stalled and now seems further away than ever.
The president said he appreciated that Mr. Putin had allowed
a full airing of views about Syria
at the dinner on Thursday. By several accounts, it was a vigorous discussion in
which Mr. Obama and Mr. Putin in effect were competing for support. Mr. Obama
emerged having changed no one’s mind about military force, but most of the
leaders at least agreed with his assessment that the government of Bashar
al-Assad, the Syrian president, was responsible for the attack, something Mr.
Putin has dismissed as “utter nonsense.”
“I’ve been encouraged
by my discussions with my fellow leaders this week,” Mr. Obama said Friday. “There
is a growing recognition that the world cannot stand idly by.”
But he acknowledged the deep reservations over the use of
force and said he reminded the leaders at the dinner that he had opposed Mr.
Bush’s invasion of Iraq
in 2003. “I was elected to end wars, not start them,” Mr. Obama said he told
them. “I’m not itching for military action.”
In addition to the talk with Mr. Putin, Mr. Obama held more
formal meetings with the leaders of Brazil,
China, France, Japan
and Mexico.
His session with President François Hollande of France
was his one meeting with an unalloyed supporter of military action against Syria. “Doing
nothing would mean impunity,” Mr. Hollande told reporters, “and there would be
a risk of repeating, so we must take responsibility.”
The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, tried to dissuade Mr.
Obama from the use of force during their talk on Friday, said Benjamin J.
Rhodes, deputy national security adviser. “We’ve obviously had a difference
with China
on this issue,” he said.
President Obama’s conversations with President Dilma
Rousseff of Brazil and President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico were intended to
smooth over consternation in both countries about reports, based on Mr.
Snowden’s leaks, that the National Security Agency eavesdropped on both
leaders’ telephone calls, e-mails and text messages.
Ms. Rousseff told
reporters afterward that Mr. Obama promised an investigation, but she held out
the possibility that she might cancel a trip to Washington scheduled for next month. Mr.
Peña Nieto told BBC that he also got a promise of an inquiry into the
allegations and that Mr. Obama committed “to impose corresponding sanctions” if
they were true.
While White House officials said that tension did not
influence the Syria
debate, neither leader backed military action.
Mr. Obama also made a point before leaving town of meeting
with nine Russian activists to show support for groups and individuals who have
come under pressure from Mr. Putin’s government. Among them was a leader from a
gay rights group, raising an issue that has grown especially sensitive in
Europe and the United States
since Russia
outlawed pro-gay “propaganda” this summer.
But Mr. Obama had no
critical words for Mr. Putin or his government during his comments in front of
news cameras, instead focusing on his own history as a community organizer and
offering general statements about the value of free press, independent
opposition and civil society.
Mr. Obama was scheduled to land back in Washington on Friday night as he braced for
what advisers consider one of the most critical Congressional debates of his
presidency.
“I knew this was
going to be a heavy lift,” he said. “I was under no illusions when I embarked
on this path. But I think it’s the right thing to do. I think it’s good for our
democracy. We will be more effective if we are unified going forward.”