OBAMA EXPECTS PUTIN TO CHANGE ATTITUDE ON MILITARY INTERVENTION IN SYRIA

       Stockholm, Sweden, 29 Shawwal 1434/5 September 2013 (MINA) – US President Barack Obama expects Russia’s Vladimir Putin to change his attitude about military intervention in Syria, Wednesday.

      “I’m always hopeful … Ultimately, we can end deaths much more rapidly if Russia takes a different approach to these problems,” Obama told a news conference during a visit to Sweden ahead of the forthcoming G20 meeting in St Petersburg, Russia.

      His comments came hours after Putin warned the US against taking a one-sided action in Syria. Russia is Syria’s biggest international ally, Aljazeera quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

      Putin said that such an endorsement would require “convincing” evidence that President Bashar al-Assad’s government used chemical weapons. He also said the currently available evidence did not fulfil that criteria.

     “From our viewpoint, it seems absolutely absurd that the armed forces, the regular armed forces, which have encircled the so-called rebels and are finishing them off, that in these conditions they would start using forbidden chemical weapons,” Putin 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,” Putin added in his interview.

      “And it ought to be convincing. It shouldn’t be based on some rumours and information obtained by special services through some kind of eavesdropping, some conversations and things like that.”

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

       He said that the process remained suspended “for now”.

       The interview on Tuesday night at Putin’s country residence outside Moscow was the only one he granted prior to the summit of G-20 nations in St Petersburg, which opens on Thursday and will see major world powers discuss the global economy and the crisis in Syria.

        Obama told a news conference on Wednesday that “failing to respond to this attack would only increase the risk of more attacks and the possibility that other countries would use these weapons, as well.” He has said the international community cannot remain silent in the face of the “barbarism” of the Syrian regime’s alleged use of chemical weapons.

       The US president was speaking during a visit to Sweden ahead of the forthcoming G20 meeting in St Petersburg, Russia.

        “I discussed our assessment [with the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt] and we are in an agreement that in the face of such barbarism the international community cannot be silent,” he said.

US-backed False Flag chem attack?

       Meanwhile, A Leaked emails have allegedly proved that the White House gave the green light to a chemical weapons attack in Syria that could be blamed on Assad’s regime and in turn, spur international military action in the devastated country.

        A report released on Monday contains an email exchange between two senior officials at British-based contractor Britam Defence where a scheme ‘approved by Washington’ is outlined explaining that Qatar would fund rebel forces in Syria to use chemical weapons.

        According to Infowars.com, the December 25 email was sent from Britam’s Business Development Director David Goulding to company founder Philip Doughty.

        It reads: ‘Phil… We’ve got a new offer. It’s about Syria again. Qataris propose an attractive deal and swear that the idea is approved by Washington.

        ‘We’ll have to deliver a CW to Homs, a Soviet origin g-shell from Libya similar to those that Assad should have.

        ‘They want us to deploy our Ukrainian personnel that should speak Russian and make a video record.

        ‘Frankly, I don’t think it’s a good idea but the sums proposed are enormous. Your opinion?

         ‘Kind regards, David.’

       An Obama administration official who had access to the document was reported as saying: ‘We can’t definitely say 100 per cent, but Syrian contacts made a compelling case that Agent 15 was used in Homs on Dec. 23.’

       Figures vary regarding the alleged chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb on August 21, with the US government saying that 1,429 people were killed by poison gas in the attack, and aid agencies putting that number at closer to 355.

      The Assad government has blamed the attack on the rebels, and a UN inspection team that examined the attack sites is awaiting lab results on soil and tissue samples. (T/P09/E1).

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).