Obama, Putin square off at UN over Syrian war

Heavyweights deliver strongly worded rebukes as Mideast crisis dominates agenda at summit

When the Syrian uprising against President Bashar Assad began in 2011, it looked like one more dictatorial domino about to fall in the Middle East.

Instead it exploded into one of this century’s bloodiest and most far-reaching wars. And the UN gathering of world leaders this week is dramatic proof of how far war has rolled across the Middle East and beyond, deepening divisions in a way not seen since the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

President Barack Obama, in a speech clearly aimed at Russia’s military buildup in Syria, quashed President Vladimir Putin’s suggestions of any east-west coalition against Islamic militants that depended on keeping Assad in power.

Obama did not rule out working with Russia to defeat the militants. But, like French President François Hollande, he made it clear he sees no role for Assad in any future peace process.

“When a dictator slaughters tens of thousands of his own people, that is not a matter of a nation’s internal affairs,” Obama said of Assad.

Putin lashed back with a scathing condemnation of the “aggressive foreign interference” that ousted Saddam Hussein from Iraq, with the consequence that “instead of the triumph of democracy and progress we got violence, poverty and a social disaster.”

“When a dictator slaughters tens of thousands of his own people, that is not a matter of a nation’s internal affairs.” BARACK OBAMA ON THE SITUATION IN SYRIA

“Tens of thousands of militants are fighting under the banners of the socalled ‘Islamic State,’ ” he said. “Its ranks include former Iraqi servicemen who were thrown out into the street after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.”

Putin added that Russia, now taking on the rotating presidency of the Security Council, will call a ministerial meeting to pass a resolution to co-ordinate the actions of all countries fighting the Islamic militants under a UN umbrella.

But Moscow has stood on the opposite side of numerous resolutions on Syria from the U.S. and other Western countries.

Most of the leaders speaking at Monday’s opening of the UN General Assembly denounced the brutality of Islamic State militants, but Russia and the U.S. were not alone in sparring over blame and possible solutions.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani — his reputation burnished by the recent deal to control Tehran’s nuclear ambitions in spite of the clerical regime’s widely publicized human rights violations — positioned himself as a regional peacemaker.

“I would like to invite the whole world, and especially the countries of my region, to form a ‘joint comprehensive plan of action’ to create a united front against extremism and violence,” he said, urging an end to the “slaughter of innocent people and the bombardment of civilians.”

But Iran’s unwavering support for Syria — and backing for Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia — cast a pall over efforts in the West.

And his insistence that Washington’s backing for Israel’s “Zionist regime against the oppressed nation of Palestine” is giving the Islamic terrorists a “justification for their crimes” only emphasized the width of the gap between Iran and Western countries.

The war in Syria has also deepened divisions between Shiite Iran and the Sunni states in the Gulf. But there are splits even between countries that claim to be on the same side.

Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani called for UN co-operation to “impose a political solution in Syria that would end the reign of tyranny and (replace) it with a pluralistic regime” that would allow “equal citizenship for all Syrians.”

But Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who maintains that all Muslims were at war with the same enemy, has also waged a bitter verbal battle with Qatar for siding with the Muslim Brotherhood, the party of deposed president Mohammed Morsi.

Egypt has outlawed the organization and its followers.

Will the high-level UN meetings lead any farther down the bloodstained road to peace in Syria? So far the signs are not encouraging. Earlier, Secretary General Ban Kimoon said five countries — Russia, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran — were crucial if a political solution was to be forged. But without a landmark compromise, it would be “futile” to expect change on the ground.

The UN meetings will continue during the next week. While the leaders talk, Syria continues to burn.