Assad takes aim at US over threat of strikes
BEIJING: Syrian President Bashar alAssad criticised the United States for threatening to attack Syria over its chemical weapons programme, saying it was finding ‘‘excuses for war’’, China’s state television said yesterday.
US President Barack Obama has warned that he is prepared to attack Syria, even without a UN mandate, if Mr Assad reneges on a US-Russia deal to put Syria’s chemical arms stockpiles under international control.
Russia and the United States brokered the deal to avert US military strikes that Washington said would punish Mr Assad for a poison gas attack last month.
‘‘If the US wants to find excuses for war, it will find them as it has never stopped war,’’ Mr Assad said in an interview with China’s state television, CCTV, in the Syrian capital.
‘‘As long as the US intends to continue exerting its hegemony over other countries, we will all keep high alert,’’ Mr Assad said, according to a transcript of his translated remarks from CCTV.
‘‘With or without the Syrian crisis, we will always be on alert against some Western countries’ intention to override the UN Charter and the international laws,’’ he said.
Russia and China have both vetoed previous Western efforts to impose UN penalties on Mr Assad.
But China has also been keen to show it is not taking sides and has urged the Syrian government to talk to the opposition and take steps to meet demands for political change. It has said a transitional government should be formed.
China has also called for a full and impartial investigation by UN chemical weapons inspectors into the Aug 21 attack, and has warned against prejudging the results.
Mr Assad said China and Russia would ‘‘ensure any excuse for military action against Syria will not stand’’.
Earlier, an article on the CCTV website quoted Mr Assad as saying: ‘‘I am not concerned. Since its independence, Syria has been committed to all the treaties it has signed. We will honour everything that we have agreed to do.
‘‘And more importantly, I want to say, by submitting the draft to the UN Security Council, or by urging the US and Russia to agree on a deal, the US, France, and Britain are just trying to make themselves winners in a war against a Syria which is their imaginary enemy.’’
The United States has blamed Mr Assad’s forces for the Aug 21 chemical attack, which it said killed more than 1,400 people.
Mr Assad blamed rebels battling to overthrow him, saying it made no sense for his forces to use chemical weapons when they were gaining the upper hand and while UN chemical inspectors were staying in central Damascus.
Under the US-Russian deal, Mr Assad must account for his chemical weapons stockpiles within a week and see them destroyed by the middle of next year.
Russia, a key ally of Mr Assad, is unhappy with the draft’s references to possible punitive measures against Syria under Article 7 of the UN charter, which talks about UN authorisation for sanctions and military force.