Europe, Arab nations demand action

Assad regime defies West to prove that chemical weapons were used on civilians

Say Syria must be held responsible,

BEIRUT European and Arab nations joined Tuesday to condemn Syrian dictator Bashar Assad for gassing his own people as the United States pondered military action in its first direct intervention in the Syrian civil war.

France, the United Kingdom and the Arab League said Syria must be held responsible for the attack. “France is ready to punish those who took the decision to gas the innocent,” French President Francois Hollande said in Paris.

The Arab League issued a state- ment Tuesday that Assad is to blame and that the United Nations should respond. The league, which met in an emergency session in Cairo, did not call for military intervention.

British Prime Minister David Cameron recalled Parliament from a recess for a vote Thursday on his nation’s response. He said the United Kingdom could “not stand idly by.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to discuss what options President Obama was weighing, but the Pentagon has said it could launch cruise missiles at selected targets. U. S warships are in the Mediterranean off Syria’s coast, and U. K. warplanes gathered at an air base in Cyprus, ac- cording to Britain’s Guardian newspaper. Carney said any operation would not attempt to depose Assad.

Syria challenged the United States to prove its claim that military forces used chemical weapons in an attack that killed hundreds of civilians.

The state- run Syrian Arab News Agency accused Secretary of State John Kerry of using “fabricated” evidence to claim it is “undeniable” that Syria used chemical weapons against civilians Aug. 21. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al- Moallem said Syria would defend itself using “all means available” in case of a U. S. strike.

The United Nations said its team of chemical weapons experts in Syria delayed a second trip Tuesday to investigate the alleged poison gas attack near Damascus by one day for security reasons.

Russia demanded Western nations stop talk of attacks and take the matter to the United Nations, where Moscow has used its veto on the Security Council to block action against Assad.

“France is ready to punish those who took the decision to gas the innocent.”

President Francois Hollande

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said an attack without U. N. approval would cause “new suffering and catastroph- ic consequences,” according to the Russian TV station RT.

Doctors Without Borders, a humanitarian group based in France, said at least 350 people died from what appeared to be poison gas. Rebel groups that have been trying to topple Assad for more than two years said more than 1,000 people died.

Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., said he would support a plan to launch cruise missiles and follow up with a comprehensive strategy that better arms rebels, takes out the “command and control” capabilities of Assad and “shifts momentum in favor of those being massacred.”

“If it’s just going to be some token attacks with cruise missiles ... it won’t be worth anything,” McCain said.