U.S. Sees Multiday Syria Strikes as U.K. Goes to UN [View all]

[Purveyor]

By Leon Mangasarian, Dana El Baltaji and Robert Hutton - Aug 28, 2013

U.S. officials planning potential military strikes on Syria aren’t limited to a one-day operation, an administration official said, as the UN Security Council’s permanent members considered a resolution condemning last week’s suspected chemical attack.

The U.S. and its allies are still working to define goals for a military strike on Syria, said the official, who asked not to be identified discussing war-planning efforts. U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said today the United Nations resolution offered by his country would authorize action to protect civilians in Syria.

U.S. and British officials say there’s little doubt that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are responsible for the chemical attacks near Damascus that opposition groups say killed more than 1,300 people. The head of the UN said its inspectors in Syria need time to establish the facts.

The U.K. resolution would allow the use of “all necessary measures under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter to protect civilians from chemical weapons,” Cameron’s office in London said in an e-mailed statement. The veto-wielding permanent Security Council members -- the U.S., U.K., Russia, China and France -- were meeting in New York to discuss the draft. Russia, an ally of Syria with a naval base in the country, has so far opposed moves to censure Assad’s government.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-27/u-s-allies-move-closer-to-military-strike-against-syria.html