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President Barack Obama says he will pursue diplomatic efforts to remove Syria’s chemical weapons but has ordered the US military to “be in a position to respond” if such measures fail.
In a televised address, Barack Obama said he had asked Congress to postpone a vote authorizing the use of force.
The US has threatened air strikes after a chemical weapons attack killed hundreds in Damascus last month.
Russia has proposed such weapons be placed under international control.
Although Syrian officials have agreed in principle, the US and its allies remain skeptical.
The Russian plan triggered a day of diplomatic wrangling at the UN on Tuesday.
Speaking from the White House, President Barack Obama said his administration had long resisted calls for military action in Syria because he did not believe that force could solve the civil war.
But he said he changed his mind after the chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs on August 21.
“The images from this massacre are sickening,” he said.
“On that terrible night, the world saw in gruesome detail the terrible nature of chemical weapons and why the overwhelming majority of humanity has declared them off limits, a crime against humanity and a violation of the laws of war.”
The Syrian government has strongly denied carrying out the attack and instead blamed rebels trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad.
However, Barack Obama said the US “knew” the Assad regime was to blame.
Barack Obama says he will pursue diplomatic efforts to remove Syria’s chemical weapons
“We know that Assad’s chemical weapons personnel prepared for an attack near an area where they mix sarin gas,” he said.
“They distributed gas masks to their troops. Then they fired rockets from a regime-controlled area into 11 neighborhoods that the regime has been trying to wipe clear of opposition forces.”
Barack Obama said that such an attack was not only a violation of international law it was also a danger to US national security.
“As the ban against these weapons erodes, other tyrants will have no reason to think twice about acquiring poison gas and using them,” he said.
He said that “after careful deliberation” he had decided to respond to the use of chemical weapons through “a targeted military strike”.
“The purpose of this strike would be to deter Assad from using chemical weapons, to degrade his regime’s ability to use them and to make clear to the world that we will not tolerate their use. That’s my judgment as commander in chief.”
However, Barack Obama said he would not “put American boots on the ground in Syria” or pursue open-ended action such as that in Iraq or Afghanistan.
He added: “Others have asked whether it’s worth acting if we don’t take out Assad. As some members of Congress have said, there’s no point in simply doing a pinprick strike in Syria. Let me make something clear: The United States military doesn’t do pinpricks.”
President Barack Obama said he welcomed Russia’s proposal as an alternative to military action, but added: “It’s too early to tell whether this offer will succeed.
“Any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments. But this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force.”
Barack Obama said he had therefore asked the leaders of Congress to postpone a vote to authorize the use of force “while we pursue this diplomatic path”.
He confirmed earlier reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry would meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Thursday, adding: “I will continue my own discussions with President [Vladimir] Putin.”
“I’ve spoken to the leaders of two of our closest allies, France and the United Kingdom. And we will work together in consultation with Russia and China to put forward a resolution at the UN Security Council requiring Assad to give up his chemical weapons and to ultimately destroy them under international control.”
He added: “Meanwhile, I’ve ordered our military to maintain their current posture, to keep the pressure on Assad and to be in a position to respond if diplomacy fails.”
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President Barack Obama has said he will put plans for a military strike against Syria on hold if the country agrees to place its chemical weapons stockpile under international control.
However, the US president said he was skeptical the Syrian government would follow through.
As the US Congress debates authorizing an attack, Russia on Monday proposed Syria relinquish its chemical weapons.
The US accuses Damascus of war crimes including use of chemical weapons, allegations denied by the regime.
Barack Obama on Monday gave a series of television interviews aimed at building support among a US Congress and public wary of new military action in the Middle East.
The president maintains a limited strike is needed to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for the use of chemical weapons and to deter it from using them again.
“I want to make sure that norm against use of chemical weapons is maintained,” Barack Obama told ABC News.
“That’s in our national security interest. If we can do that without a military strike that is overwhelmingly my preference.”
Asked by Diane Sawyer of ABC News if he would put plans for an attack on pause should Bashar al-Assad yield control of his chemical weapons, Barack Obama answered: “Absolutely, if in fact that happened.”
Barack Obama said he would continue to press the US Congress to back a resolution authorizing him to take military action against Syria, but he implied the timeline for action had shifted.
Barack Obama has said he will put plans for a military strike against Syria on hold if the country agrees to place its chemical weapons stockpile under international control
“The stakes are high, but they are long term,” he said, adding that he did not “foresee a succession of votes this week, or any time in the immediate future”.
Barack Obama added: “I don’t think that we would have gotten to this point unless we had maintained a credible possibility of a military strike, and I don’t think now is the time for us to let up on that.”
US senators had been expected to take a first vote on the issue on Wednesday, but the test vote on the legislation was postponed on Monday by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid who cited “international discussions” as a reason for the delay.
Many US politicians and members of the public remain concerned that military action could draw the nation into a prolonged war and spark broader hostilities in the region.
Support in Congress for a measure authorizing attacks on Syria has remained relatively low, with more than 230 of the 433 members in the House of Representatives reportedly either opposed to or likely to oppose strikes as of Friday.
In addition, opinion polls suggest Americans remain wary of a strike against Syria, with only one in five believing that a failure to respond to chemical weapons attacks would embolden other governments, according to an Associated Press poll concluded on Monday.
Barack Obama’s remarks came after Russia asked Syria to put its chemical weapons stockpiles under international control and then have them destroyed, in an attempt to avoid US military strikes.
The idea appeared to have stemmed from an inadvertent suggestion by Secretary of State John Kerry.
When asked at a news conference whether there was anything Bashar al-Assad could do to avoid a military strike, John Kerry replied that he could hand over his entire stockpile of chemical weapons within the next week.
Although US officials subsequently said John Kerry had made a “rhetorical argument” rather than a serious offer, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later said he presented the proposal during talks with his Syrian counterpart, Walid Muallem.
Sergei Lavrov revealed that he had urged Walid Muallem to “not only agree on placing chemical weapons storage sites under international control, but also on their subsequent destruction”.
He said he had also told Walid Muallem that Syria should then fully join the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Walid Muallem told reporters through an interpreter that Syria welcomed the initiative, and he praised Russia for “attempting to prevent American aggression against our people”.
Barack Obama on Monday told NBC News he was “skeptical” of Syria’s professed interest in relinquishing its weapons, because “this is not how we’ve seen them operate over the last couple of years”.
But he suggested the matter would never have arisen in talks between Russia and Syria “unless we had maintained a credible possibility of a military strike, and I don’t think now is the time for us to let up on that”.
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Russia has urged Syria to put its chemical weapons stockpiles under international control and then have them destroyed, in an attempt to avoid US military strikes.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the offer was made during talks with his Syrian counterpart, Walid Muallem.
Walid Muallem said he welcomed the initiative.
The US is threatening strikes accusing the Syrian regime of war crimes, though Damascus denies the claims.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, in Europe to garner support for the military action, has once again warned that taking no action is riskier than launching strikes.
When asked at a news conference whether there was anything Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could do to avoid military action, John Kerry replied that he could hand over his entire stockpile of chemical weapons within the next week.
US officials subsequently clarified that John Kerry was making a “rhetorical argument” rather than a serious offer.
Russia has urged Syria to put its chemical weapons stockpiles under international control and then have them destroyed
However, Sergei Lavrov later said he had urged Walid Muallem during talks in Moscow to “not only agree on placing chemical weapons storage sites under international control, but also on their subsequent destruction”.
Sergei Lavrov said he had also told Walid Muallem that Syria should then fully join the Chemical Weapons Convention.
Walid Muallem told reporters through an interpreter that Syria welcomed the Russian initiative.
He praised Russia for “attempting to prevent American aggression against our people”.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron said the destruction of the weapons would be a “huge step forward”, but warned that it should not be used as a “distraction tactic”.
The Russians have been the main international ally of Bashar al-Assad’s regime throughout Syria’s two-and-a-half-year civil war.
Russia has blocked three resolutions against Syria in the UN Security Council, and has dismissed evidence linking Bashar al-Assad’s forces to a chemical attack in Damascus on August 21.
The US says Syrian government forces used poison gas to kill 1,429 people in the attack.
Bashar al-Assad’s government blames the attack on rebels fighting to overthrow him, in a conflict that the UN says has claimed some 100,000 lives.
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In an interview with PBS, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said there is “no evidence” that his government has used chemical weapons.
In the interview, to be aired on Monday, Bashar al-Assad also suggested his allies would retaliate if the West attacked.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has been lobbying hard for military action against Bashar al-Assad during talks with EU and Arab foreign ministers in Europe.
Congress is due to debate whether to authorize intervention in Syria.
Lawmakers will return from their summer recess on Monday to start discussing President Barack Obama’s resolution to launch a “limited, narrow” strike.
A Senate vote on the issue is expected as early as Wednesday, although the timetable for Barack Obama’s request is less certain in the House, where the measure faces an even rockier time.
The US accuses Bashar al-Assad’s forces of killing 1,429 people in a sarin gas attack on 21 August on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus.
Bashar al-Assad’s government blames the attack on rebels fighting to overthrow him in the country’s two-and-a-half-year civil war, which has claimed some 100,000 lives, according to UN estimates.
In his interview with PBS, the Syrian president said it was up to the US to prove that his forces were behind the Damascus attack.
In an interview with PBS, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said there is “no evidence” that his government has used chemical weapons
“There has been no evidence that I used chemical weapons against my own people,” he told the network.
Bashar al-Assad would neither confirm nor deny that his government kept chemical weapons, but said that if they existed, they were “in centralized control”.
He also reportedly “suggested that there would be, among people that are aligned with him, some kind of retaliation if a strike was made”, PBS said.
Syria’s allies include China and Russia, as well as Iran and the militant Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.
On a visit to Moscow, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said the US was using the issue of chemical weapons as a “pretext” to launch a war.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there was no alternative to a peaceful solution to the crisis – and Moscow was convinced it was possible.
“We appeal to our American colleagues to concentrate on this [the Geneva conference] and not for preparing for a war scenario”.
The White House has admitted it has no “irrefutable” evidence of Bashar al-Assad’s involvement in the August attack, but said a “strong common-sense test irrespective of the intelligence” suggested his government was responsible.
“We’ve seen the video proof of the outcome of those attacks,” White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough said on Sunday.
“Now do we have a picture or do we have irrefutable beyond-a-reasonable-doubt evidence? This is not a court of law and intelligence does not work that way.”
John Kerry also dismissed Bashar al-Assad’s comments, saying that “the evidence speaks for itself”.
“Assad’s deplorable use of chemical weapons crosses an international, global red line,” he said in Paris after meeting Arab League foreign ministers.
John Kerry will meet UK Foreign Secretary William Hague in London on Monday morning, before returning to the US in the afternoon.
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David Petraeus is urging members of Congress to support President Barack Obama’s plan for military intervention in Syria.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is suspected of launching chemical attacks on his own people, killing more than 1,400, including hundreds of children.
Former CIA director and retired Army General David Petraeus says military action in Syria is “necessary” to deter other nations – like Iran and North Korea – from using similar weapons.
While President Barack Obama could have used military force in Syria without the approval of Congress, he opted to put the decision to a vote. Even if Congress doesn’t approve the president’s plan – which seems likely given the bi-partisan objections to intervening in yet another war in the Middle East – Barack Obama still has the authority to launch an attack.
“Failure of Congress to approve the president’s request would have serious ramifications not just in the Mideast but around the world,” David Petraeus said in a statement to POLITICO.
President Barack Obama is using gruesome footage that shows the carnage in the suburbs of Demascus following the August 21, attack, when the White House alleges Bashar al-Assad launched sarin gas in areas considered to be rebel strongholds.
David Petraeus is urging members of Congress to support President Barack Obama’s plan for military intervention in Syria
In one of the more heartbreaking videos, a room is full of what appear to be the lifeless bodies of dozens of children. In another, men are seen foaming at the mouth and having convulsions.
In all, 1,429 people were killed in the vicious attack, including at least 426 children.
David Petraeus, who is widely respected amongst lawmakers when it comes to military matters, could help persuade members of Congress to support the White House’s plan for Syria.
“Military action against the Syrian regime is, thus, necessary not just to deter future use of chemical weapons in Syria and elsewhere, but also to ensure that Iran, North Korea and other would-be aggressors never underestimate the United States’ resolve to take necessary military action when other tools prove insufficient,” David Petraeus said in the statement.
David Petraeus served as the U.S. commander for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan under former President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama. He was tapped by Barack Obama to be the director of the CIA in 2011 but was forced to resign after an affair he had with his biographer went public.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates also have publicly supported the president’s call for military intervention in Syria.
On Monday – when Congress is back in session – President Barack Obama will sit for interviews with six different television networks in an attempt to win public support for his plan for Syria. The interviews will be conducted by ABC’s Diane Sawyer, CBS’s Scott Pelley, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Fox’s Chris Wallace, NBC’s Brian Williams and PBS’s Gwen Ifill.
Congress is expected to vote on the matter later this week, as support for Barack Obama’s plan continues to dwindle.
President Barack Obama last week canceled a trip to California so he could stay in Washington to continue lobbying for intervention in Syria. The president was scheduled to attend a $324,000 a plate fundraiser at the home of Marta Kauffman, the co-creator of the NBC sitcom Friends.
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G20 leaders at Saint Petersburg summit remain divided over the Syrian conflict as they enter the final day of their meeting.
Italian PM Enrico Letta said the splits were confirmed during a working dinner in St Petersburg on Thursday.
A spokesman for the Russian presidency said a US strike on Syria would “drive another nail into the coffin of international law”.
At the UN, the US Ambassador Samantha Power accused Russia of holding the Security Council hostage by blocking resolutions.
Samantha Power said the Security Council was no longer a “viable path” for holding Syria accountable for war crimes.
The US government accuses President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of killing 1,429 people in a poison-gas attack in the Damascus suburbs on August 21.
The UK says scientists at the Porton Down research laboratories have found traces of sarin gas on cloth and soil samples.
But Bashar al-Assad has blamed rebels for the attack. China and Russia, which have refused to agree to a Security Council resolution against Syria, insist any action without the UN would be illegal.
The US and France are the only nations at the G20 summit to commit to using force in Syria.
Samantha Power told a news conference in New York: “Even in the wake of the flagrant shattering of the international norm against chemical weapons use, Russia continues to hold the council hostage and shirk its international responsibilities.
G20 leaders at Saint Petersburg summit remain divided over the Syrian conflict as they enter the final day of their meeting
“What we have learned, what the Syrian people have learned, is that the Security Council the world needs to deal with this crisis is not the Security Council we have.”
President Barack Obama is thought to be trying at the G20 summit to build an international coalition to back strikes against military targets in Syria.
But differences of opinion became obvious when world leaders – including Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin – discussed Syria over dinner on Thursday evening.
Enrico Letta said in a tweet that “the G20 has just now finished the dinner session, at which the divisions about Syria were confirmed”.
President Vladimir Putin’s press spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said after the dinner that the G20 was split down the middle, with some countries seeking hasty action and others wanting the US to go through the UN Security Council.
British sources say the leaders of France, Turkey, Canada and the UK gave strong backing to President Barack Obama’s call for military action. The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said the Turks put a “very strong argument about how the world must respond to the use of chemical weapons”.
But correspondents in St Petersburg say opponents of US military intervention appear to far outnumber supporters within the G20.
However, the views of the G20 leaders on any US action could be the least of Barack Obama’s worries, as his real difficulties might lie back in the US.
He was nearly an hour late for Thursday’s G20 dinner. His aides said he had been trying to find time during the summit to call US members of Congress, who are due to vote next week on whether to back Barack Obama’s call for a military strike.
President Barack Obama also cancelled a trip to California on Monday in order to lobby Congress, as a poll commissioned by the BBC and ABC News suggested more than one-third of Congress members were undecided whether or not to back military action.
A majority of those who had made a decision said they would vote against the president.
Syria’s parliamentary speaker has written to the speaker of the House of Representatives urging members not to rush into an “irresponsible, reckless action”.
The Assad regime has been accused of using chemical weapons against Syrian civilians on several occasions during the 30-month conflict.
Some 100,000 people have died in the conflict, and more than two million Syrians are classified as refugees, according to the UN.
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US diplomats are reportedly having secret talks with their Russian counterparts behind the scenes at the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg in hopes of avoiding a stalemate over Syria.
Moscow publicly warned that a military strike on Syria could have catastrophic effects if a missile hit a small reactor near Damascus that contains radioactive uranium.
The talks started last week and are continuing both in Russia and New York, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly about bilateral diplomatic talks.
Russia is insisting that Barack Obama call off a planned military strike against Syria if either house of Congress declines to authorize it.
Meanwhile, US diplomats are insisting that the Russians bend in the opposite direction. They want Vladimir Putin’s government to entertain seriously a proposal from Saudi Arabia, which would require them to refrain from opposing UN Security Council resolutions pertaining to Syria and wind down its arms sales to Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Vladimir Putin is insisting that Barack Obama call off a planned military strike against Syria if either house of Congress declines to authorize it
Russia urged the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) secretariat to “react swiftly” and present IAEA members “an analysis of the risks linked to possible American strikes on the MNSR and other facilities in Syria”.
Moscow has been the most powerful ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, shielding him from tougher UN resolutions and warning that a Western military attack on Syria would raise tensions and undermine efforts to end the country’s civil war.
“The IAEA is aware of the statement but has not received a formal request from the Russian Federation,” an IAEA spokesperson said.
“We will consider the questions raised if we receive such a request.”
The IAEA said in a report to member states last week that Syria had declared there was a “small amount of nuclear material” at the MNSR, a type of research reactor usually fuelled by highly enriched uranium.
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The seating plan at today’s G20 summit in Saint Petersburg, Russia, has reportedly been adjusted to put physical distance between host President Vladimir Putin and President Barack Obama as tensions are running high over Syria.
Ahead of the meeting of the leading world economies in St Petersburg, Vladimir Putin warned that action without UN approval would be “an aggression” as the relationship between the two countries reaches its lowest point since the Cold War.
But President Obama, who is leading the international drive for an armed response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s apparent breach of the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons, said the credibility of the international community was on the line.
The seating plan at G20 summit in Saint Petersburg has been adjusted to put physical distance between host Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama
Barack Obama last night cleared the first hurdle to obtaining Congressional approval for a strike, as the influential Senate Foreign Affairs Committee backed the use of force by a margin of 10-7, moving the measure to a full Senate vote next week.
The proposal allows the use of force for 60 days, with the possibility of a 30-day extension.
He president has said he is confident of receiving approval from Congress for “limited and proportionate’ military action, which he said would not involve US troops putting ‘boots on the ground” in Syria.
Bashar al-Assad had flouted a chemical weapons ban enshrined in treaties signed by governments representing 98% of the world’s population, he said, adding: “I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line.”
Speaking in Sweden as he travelled to St Petersburg, Barack Obama said the credibility of the international community was “on the line” if it allowed Bashar al-Assad to act with impunity.
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G20 leaders are meeting in Sankt Petersburg, Russia, amid sharp differences over the crisis in Syria.
US President Barack Obama has begun informal talks with other leaders as he pushes for military action over Syria’s alleged use of chemical weapons.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that military action without UN approval would be “an aggression”.
Syria is not officially on the G20 agenda in St Petersburg, but it is expected to dominate informal meetings.
The annual summit of the G20 group of the world’s leading economies is supposed to concentrate on the global economy.
Barack Obama, British PM David Cameron and Chinese President Xi Jinping are among the leaders who have now arrived at the G20.
On Thursday the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said one of its surgeons, a Syrian working in Aleppo province, had been killed.
It gave no details of the circumstances but called for humanitarian workers to be protected.
Separately, Syrian rebels have launched an assault on the religiously mixed village of Maaloula, in western Syria, held by government forces.
A Christian nun in Maaloula told the Associated Press news agency that the rebels had seized a mountain-top hotel and were shelling the community below.
On the eve of the summit, a US Senate panel approved the use of military force in Syria, in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack.
G20 leaders are meeting in Sankt Petersburg amid sharp differences over the crisis in Syria
The proposal, which now goes to a full Senate vote next week, allows the use of force in Syria for 60 days with the possibility to extend it for 30 days.
The measure must also be approved by the US House of Representatives.
The Damascus government is accused of using chemical weapons against civilians on several occasions during the 30-month conflict – most recently on a large scale in an attack on 21 August on the outskirts of the capital.
The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied involvement and said the rebels were responsible.
The US has put the death toll from that incident at 1,429 – though other countries and groups have given lower figures – and says all the evidence implicates government forces.
Vladimir Putin dismissed as “ludicrous” claims the Syrian government used chemical weapons, but said Russia would be ready to act if there was clear proof of what weapons were used and by whom.
Barack Obama is trying to build support in the US for military action against the Syrian government.
After arriving in St Petersburg, he held talks with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe in the first of a series of meetings on the sidelines.
Barack Obama said Japan and the US had a “joint recognition” that the use of chemical weapons in Syria was a tragedy and a violation of international law.
Shinzo Abe has not stated publicly whether he supports military strikes.
A new study of images apparently from the chemical attack on August 21 concludes that the rockets carrying the gas held up to 50 times more nerve agent than previously estimated, the New York Times reported.
The study was carried out by an expert in warhead design, Richard Lloyd, and Theodore Postol, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The German intelligence service, the BND, told German MPs in a confidential briefing on Wednesday that Syrian forces might have misjudged the mix of gases in the attack, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported.
This might explain why the death toll was much higher than in previous suspected attacks, the head of the BND was quoted as saying.
France has strongly backed the US plan for military action. The French parliament debated the issue on Wednesday, although no vote was held.
The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.
More than two million Syrians are now registered as refugees, the UN says, with an additional 4.25 million displaced within the country, making it the worst refugee crisis since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
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Vladimir Putin has warned America and its allies against taking one-sided action in Syria.
The Russian president said any military strikes without UN approval would be “an aggression”.
President Barack Obama has called for punitive action in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack.
Vladimir Putin said Russia did not rule out supporting a UN Security Council resolution authorizing force, if it was proved “beyond doubt” that the Syrian government used chemical weapons.
On Tuesday evening, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee agreed on a draft resolution backing the use of US military force.
The measure, to be voted on next week, sets a time limit of 60 days on any operation.
According to the draft resolution, the operation would be restricted to a “limited and tailored use of the United States Armed Forces against Syria”, and ban the use of any ground forces.
The US has put the death toll from the alleged chemical attack on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21 at 1,429, though other countries and organizations have given lower figures.
Vladimir Putin has warned America and its allies against taking one-sided action in Syria
Vladimir Putin was speaking ahead of the G20 summit in St Petersburg, which opens on Thursday and is supposed to concentrate on the global economy, but now looks likely to be dominated by the Syrian crisis.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press and Russia’s state Channel 1 television, Vladimir Putin said it was “ludicrous” that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Russia, would use chemical weapons at a time when it was gaining ground against the rebels.
“If there is evidence that chemical weapons were used, and by the regular army… then this evidence must be presented to the UN Security Council. And it must be convincing,” Vladimir Putin said.
But in what correspondents say is an apparent change in stance, Vladimir Putin said Russia would “be ready to act in the most decisive and serious way” if there was clear proof of what weapons were used and who used them.
Vladimir Putin said it was “too early” to talk about what Russia would do if America took action without a UN resolution.
He confirmed that Russia had currently suspended delivering further components of S-300 missile systems to Syria.
“But if we see that steps are taken that violate the existing international norms, we shall think how we should act in the future, in particular regarding supplies of such sensitive weapons to certain regions of the world.”
The US Congress is expected to vote next week on whether to back President Barack Obama’s push for military strikes in Syria.
Ahead of next week’s vote in Congress on whether to back military strikes in Syria, US Secretary of State John Kerry appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday to promote the Obama administration’s case.
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President Barack Obama’s plans for a military strike on Syria have won backing from key US political figures.
Barack Obama said a “limited” strike was needed to degrade President Bashar al-Assad’s capabilities in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack.
Key Republican leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor both signaled their support for military action. Congress is expected to vote next week.
The UN earlier confirmed that more than two million Syrians were now refugees.
More than 100,000 people are thought to have died since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.
President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden met House Speaker John Boehner, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and the chairmen and ranking members from the national security committees in Washington on Tuesday.
John Boehner signaled his support for Barack Obama’s call for action, saying that only the US had the capacity to stop President Bashar al-Assad. John Boehner urged his colleagues in Congress to follow suit.
Eric Cantor, the House of Representatives majority leader, said he also backed Barack Obama.
President Barack Obama’s plans for a military strike on Syria have won backing from key US political figures
The Virginia Republican said: “Assad’s Syria, a state sponsor of terrorism, is the epitome of a rogue state, and it has long posed a direct threat to American interests and to our partners.”
Nancy Pelosi said she did not believe Congress would reject a resolution calling for force.
Barack Obama said that Bashar al-Assad had to be held accountable for the chemical attack and that he was confident Congress would back him.
He said he was proposing military action that would degrade Bashar al-Assad’s capacity to use chemical weapons “now and in the future”.
“What we are envisioning is something limited. It is something proportional,” the president said.
“At the same time we have a broader strategy that will allow us to upgrade the capabilities of the opposition.”
Secretary of State John Kerry, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel and the top US military officer, Gen Martin Dempsey, are appearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
John Kerry told the panel that US allies such as Israel and Jordan were “one stiff breeze” away from potentially being hurt by any fresh chemical weapons attacks, and that US inaction would only embolden the Syrian president.
“This is not the time for armchair isolationism,” John Kerry said.
“This is not the time to be spectators to slaughter. Neither our country nor out conscience can afford the cost of silence.
“We have spoken up against unspeakable horror many times in the past. Now we must stand up and act.”
But John Kerry said again that there would be no American boots on the ground in Syria and that Barack Obama was “not asking America to go to war”.
Chuck Hagel said that “the word of the United States must mean something” and echoed John Kerry when adding: “A refusal to act would undermine the credibility of America’s other security commitments, including the president’s commitment to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.”
There will also be a classified briefing for all members of Congress.
Barack Obama will head to Sweden late on Tuesday for a G20 meeting sure to be dominated by Syria.
France has strongly backed the US plan for military action.
President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday: “When a chemical massacre takes place, when the world is informed of it, when the evidence is delivered, when the guilty parties are known, then there must be an answer.”
Francois Hollande called for Europe to unite on the issue, but said he would wait for the Congress vote.
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French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is presenting intelligence to MPs which he says shows Syria used chemical weapons.
The dossier is said to show that Syria has large chemical stockpiles and was behind a chemical attack which the US says killed more than 1,400 people.
France and the US are both pushing for punitive military action against the Syrian regime. The UK parliament has voted to stay out of such a raid.
Damascus denies the attack, blaming rebel forces for the use of chemicals.
However, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he is personally convinced that a chemical attack took place and that the government of President Bashar al-Assad was responsible.
There must be “a firm international response” to deter any future use of such weapons, he said, or else it would send a “dangerous signal to dictators all over the world”.
French PM Jean-Marc Ayrault is presenting intelligence to MPs which shows Syria used chemical weapons
But he added that he did envisage NATO having a role in such action, saying he would expect any military response to be “a very short, measured, targeted operation” and that the alliance’s resources would not be needed.
Meanwhile fighting has continued across Syria, in a conflict which has already left an estimated 100,000 people dead since 2011. On Monday, activists said 20 rebel fighters were killed in an army ambush in Adra, north-east of Damascus, AFP news agency reports.
The alleged chemical attack took place in the Gouta, an eastern area of the capital on 21 August. The US says 426 children were among the more than 1,400 people killed.
The US administration has already presented its case that the Assad regime was behind the attack, and now Jean-Marc Ayrault will present France’s own intelligence dossier to parliamentary leaders.
“We are going to give the MPs everything we have – classified until now – to enable every one of them to take on board the reality of the unacceptable attack,” he said on Monday.
French MPs are due to debate the issue at an extraordinary session of parliament on Wednesday.
President Francois Hollande is constitutionally able to order an attack without parliamentary approval, but there is growing pressure for a vote on Syria, as happened in the UK and has been promised in the US.
US lawmakers are due to reconvene next week, and White House officials have said that when it comes to a vote, they believe there will be enough support for the president.
Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday samples from hair and blood gathered after the August 21 attack had tested positive for “signatures of sarin”, and that he was confident Congress would give its approval for strikes, “because they understand the stakes”.
However, some lawmakers have expressed doubts about President Barack Obama’s plan for a “limited, narrow” military operation, questioning its purpose and effectiveness.
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Secretary of State John Kerry says the US has evidence that the chemical nerve agent sarin was used in a deadly attack in Damascus last month.
John Kerry said samples from hair and blood gathered after the attack “tested positive for signatures of sarin”.
The US blames the Syrian government for the August 21 attack.
President Barack Obama has vowed punitive action but wants Congress to vote on it first.
Syria dismissed the delay and said it was ready for any strike.
UN experts have been in Syria gathering evidence to determine whether chemical weapons attacks have taken place on various occasions. They have now arrived in the Netherlands with samples for analysis.
The biggest and deadliest apparent attack took place on August 21 in east Damascus. The US says more than 1,400 people were killed.
Washington said only the Damascus government has the capacity to launch such an attack.
Syria has denied it was responsible and blames the rebels.
John Kerry says the US has evidence that the chemical nerve agent sarin was used in a deadly attack in Damascus last month
John Kerry implied that the US evidence was supplied by its own sources, rather than via the UN inspectors.
“In the last 24 hours, we have learned through samples that were provided to the United States that have now been tested from first responders in east Damascus and hair samples and blood samples have tested positive for signatures of Sarin,” Kerry said on NBC’s Meet The Press.
“So this case is building and this case will build.”
The US has previously said it had similar evidence of sarin use in other attacks.
John Kerry also said he was confident that Congress would give its approval for the US to launch strikes against Syria after it reconvenes on September 9.
Congressmen “will do what is right because they understand the stakes”, he said, declining to explain whether Barack Obama would press ahead even if Congress voted against.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said Barack Obama’s decision to delay the strikes pending a vote in Congress was just “a political and media manoeuvre”.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad remained defiant on Sunday, saying: “Syria… is capable of facing up to any external aggression just as it faces up to internal aggression every day, in the form of terrorist groups and those that support them.”
The Syrian government has been fighting rebel forces since March 2011.
More than 100,000 people are estimated to have died in the conflict, and at least 1.7 million have become refugees.
Syria is known to have extensive supplies of chemical weapons.
Barack Obama has often said that using them would cross a “red line”, prompting US intervention.
On Saturday, Barack Obama said any action would be limited, ruling out a ground invasion.
Congress is due to reconvene on September 9, meaning any military operation would not happen until then.
The opposition Syrian National Coalition (SNC) said President Barack Obama’s decision to delay any strikes in Syria was a “failure in leadership” and could “embolden” the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.
Arab League foreign ministers are meeting in Cairo on Sunday, with Saudi Arabia urging them to back calls for strikes against Syria.
The UK has ruled out taking part in any attack, after PM David Cameron failed to win the support of parliament last week.
That leaves France as the only other major power that has said it could strike against Syria – though it says it will not act on its own before the vote in the US Congress.
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UN experts arrive in The Netherlands after finishing gathering evidence of alleged gas attack in Damascus suburbs.
They have left Syria having completed four days of site visits and evidence-gathering.
The experts arrived in the Netherlands on Saturday afternoon, after travelling from Damascus to Beirut earlier in the day.
The inspectors are seeking to determine what exactly happened in an alleged chemical weapons strike that killed hundreds in the Damascus suburbs on August 21.
The departure of the UN experts has heightened expectations of a possible international military strike against government forces.
UN officials say it may take weeks to analyze the samples gathered and to present conclusions, and UN spokesperson Martin Nesirky said that the inspectors would return to the country to investigate several other alleged chemical weapons attacks that have taken place during the country’s two-and-a-half year uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
Saturday’s pullout comes as Washington suggested that the UN investigation would have no bearing on its decision about whether to attack Syria in retaliation for the alleged poison gas attack on civilians.
Russia, diplomats said, was hoping to use the time needed to complete the UN probe to slow down the push for air strikes.
UN experts arrive in The Netherlands after finishing gathering evidence of alleged gas attack in Damascus suburbs
“The samples that have been collected will be taken to be analyzed in designated laboratories, and the intention of course is to expedite the analysis of that sampling that’s been taken,” Martin Nesirky said.
He offered no timeline for when that analysis would be completed, but said all samples would need to be fully analyzed.
“This is not an electoral process, where you have exit polls and preliminary results,” he said.
“This is a scientific process. The only result that counts is the result of the analysis in laboratories and the analysis of the evidence that’s been collected through witness statements and so on.”
Martin Nesirky was addressing reporters while UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was meeting with delegates from the five permanent UN Security Council members – Britain, China, France, Russia and the US – to update them on the UN investigation in Syria.
Two diplomats told the Reuters news agency that Ban Ki-moon informed the five delegations that analysis of the samples could take up to two weeks.
Ban Ki-moon cut short a visit to Europe amid concerns that Western powers are preparing military strikes against Syria to punish the government of Bashar al-Assad for the alleged chemical attack.
Angela Kane, the UN disarmament envoy who had visited Syria with the UN experts, left Damascus on Friday and was expected to brief Ban Ki-moon in New York later on Saturday.
France said on Friday it still backed military action to punish Bashar al-Assad’s government, and Washington pushed ahead with plans for a response despite a British parliamentary vote against a military strike.
An unclassified report by US intelligence agencies released on Friday said the attack killed 1,429 Syrian civilians, including 426 children.
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Syrian government forces killed 1,429 people in a chemical weapons attack in Damascus last week, said US Secretary of State John Kerry.
John Kerry said the dead included 426 children, and described the attack as an “inconceivable horror”.
The US is pushing for intervention to stop the Syrian government from using chemical weapons.
John Kerry has said Syrian government forces killed 1,429 people in a chemical weapons attack in Damascus last week
The government of President Bashar al-Assad has denied carrying out the attack and blames rebel forces.
Medical charities had previously said the attack in eastern Damascus on August 21 had killed 355.
But John Kerry said the US now had the facts, which showed 1,429 people had been killed.
He said Assad regime forces had prepared for the attack three days earlier.
“We know rockets came only from regime-controlled areas and landed only in opposition-held areas,” he said.
“All of these things we know, the American intelligence community has high confidence.”
John Kerry said the government would consult Congress and the American people over the next step.
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President Francois Hollande has announced that France is still ready to take action in Syria alongside the US, despite UK MPs blocking British involvement.
Francois Hollande said a military strike within days could not be ruled out.
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said after the UK vote that Washington would continue to seek a coalition.
The UN is investigating claims that the Syrian forces of President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons. Bashar al-Assad denies the claims, blaming rebels.
UN chemical weapons inspectors visited a hospital in a government-controlled area of Damascus on Friday.
They are due to give their preliminary findings to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon over the weekend.
Francois Hollande told Le Monde newspaper that the UK vote, in which parliament rejected a government motion supporting the principle of military action, made no difference to France’s position.
“Each country is sovereign to participate or not in an operation. That is valid for Britain as it is for France,” he said.
He said that if the UN Security Council was unable to act, a coalition would form including the Arab League and European countries.
“But there are few countries which can have the capacity of enforcing any sanction through the appropriate measures,” he said.
“France will be part of it. France is ready.”
Francois Hollande ruled out strikes while the UN inspectors were in Syria. However he did not rule out the possibility that military action could be taken before next Wednesday, when the French parliament is due to debate the issue.
France is still ready to take action in Syria alongside the US, despite UK MPs blocking British involvement
Neither France nor the US need parliamentary approval for action, and Secretary of State John Kerry said the US could not be held to the foreign policy of others.
The UK vote was welcomed in Russia, Syria’s main international ally.
Moscow said it reflected a growing public understanding of the dangers of an attack.
Syrian MPs are also delighted with the UK vote.
They believe a letter they sent to the UK parliament inviting their British counterparts to inspect the evidence of chemical attacks had helped sway the vote against military action.
China, which has vetoed previous UN Security Council resolutions against Syria, reiterated on Friday that no action should be taken until the UN inspectors have reported on their findings.
And Germany said of military action that “such participation has not been sought nor is it being considered”.
Officials in the US and UK had been insistent throughout the week that the Assad regime had carried out a poison-gas attack in eastern Damascus on August 21 in which hundreds were killed.
However, British PM David Cameron told parliament on Thursday he could not be 100% sure.
In the US, government officials briefed a Congressional committee on the case for launching action against Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
Eliot Engel, the top Democratic member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told reporters after the briefing that officials had said it was “beyond a doubt that chemical weapons were used, and used intentionally by the Assad regime”.
He said officials had cited evidence including “intercepted communications from high-level Syrian officials”.
Reports in the US media this week described Syrian officials suggesting in phone conversations that the chemical weapons attack had been more devastating than was intended.
More than 100,000 people are estimated to have died since the conflict erupted in Syria in March 2011, and the conflict has produced at least 1.7 million refugees.
Forces which could be used against Syria:
• Four US destroyers – USS Gravely, USS Ramage, USS Barry and USS Mahan – are in the eastern Mediterranean, equipped with cruise missiles. The missiles can also be fired from submarines, but the US Navy does not reveal their locations
• Airbases at Incirlik and Izmir in Turkey, and in Jordan, could be used to carry out strikes
• Two aircraft carriers – USS Nimitz and USS Harry S Truman are in the wider region
• French aircraft carrierCharles de Gaulle is currently in Toulon in the western Mediterranean
• French Raffale and Mirage aircraft can also operate from Al-Dhahra airbase in the UAE
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The British Parliament vote against military strikes in Syria is a tough blow to PM David Cameron’s domestic political fortunes.
Since taking office in 2010, David Cameron has on numerous occasions been undercut not just from opposition parties, but also from rebel elements within both his own Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, the junior member of the U.K.’s governing coalition.
The government lost a vote – by a tally of 285 to 272 – that would have supported in principle military intervention in Syria, where Western governments have said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime carried out a deadly chemical-weapons attack on civilians last week. Members of all major parties – including David Cameron’s Tories – opposed the measure.
The British Parliament vote against military strikes in Syria is a tough blow to PM David Cameron’s domestic political fortunes
David Cameron said it is clear that the British Parliament, reflecting the view of the British people, doesn’t want to see the U.K. get involved in military action and “the government will act accordingly”.
The outcome marks a significant moment in British politics – it is highly unusual for a prime minister to be defeated on foreign policy and raises questions about what the U.K.’s role will be the world stage going forward.
It is also a rare setback for U.S.-U.K. relations that will spur questions about the so-called “special relationship” between the two nations. In recent decades, the U.K. has rarely if ever parted ways with the U.S. on such a significant strategic issue.
While the government doesn’t require parliamentary approval to take military action, it would now be politically difficult to do so. A further parliamentary vote had been due to take place early next week on whether the U.K. should be directly involved in that action. A spokesman for the prime minister confirmed that the U.K. now won’t take part in the Syrian action.
The outcome of the U.K. vote could make it more difficult for President Barack Obama and other Western allies – already weary from years of difficult military intervention in the Middle East – to convince their own publics of the need for intervention in Syria.
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President Barack Obama has said he has not yet decided on Syria strike.
However, the president said he had concluded Syrian government forces were behind a recent chemical weapons attack near Damascus.
Speaking on US television, Barack Obama said the use of chemical weapons affected US national interests and that sending a “shot across the bows” could have a positive impact on Syria’s war.
His comments follow a day of behind-the-scenes wrangling at the UN.
Meanwhile the UK had been pushing for permanent members of the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution which would have authorized measures to protect civilians in Syria.
But Syrian ally Russia refused to agree to the resolution and the meeting produced no end to the diplomatic stalemate which has long characterized the UN position on Syria.
The US State Department criticized “Russian intransigence” and said it could not allow diplomatic paralysis to serve as a shield for the Syrian leadership.
Russia is sending an anti-submarine ship and a missile cruiser to the eastern Mediterranean.
The ships are being sent to strengthen the navy’s presence in the area because of the “well-known situation” there, the Russian news agency Interfax has said.
But another news agency, RIA Novosti, quotes a senior naval command spokesman as saying that this is just a planned rotation, unconnected with Syria.
Critics have questioned what purpose a limited strike on Syria could serve, but Barack Obama told the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) it would send the government of Bashar al-Assad “a pretty strong signal that it better not [use chemical weapons] again”.
President Barack Obama has said he has not yet decided on Syria strike
The US has yet to produce the intelligence it says shows Bashar al-Assad’s government is guilty of using chemical weapons, and UN weapons inspectors are still investigating inside Syria.
The team has just begun a third day of on-site investigations, and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appealed for it to be “given time to do its job”. He said the inspectors would finish their investigations and be out of the area by Saturday morning.
Syria denies using chemical weapons and blames opposition fighters for the attack near Damascus on August 21, which reportedly killed hundreds of people.
It accused the West of “inventing” excuses to launch a strike.
In a sign of growing fears about an impending attack among Syrians, the Associated Press quoted Lebanese officials as saying at least 6,000 Syrians crossed into Lebanon in a 24-hour period through the main Masnaa crossing – compared to a normal daily tally of between 500 and 1,000 refugees.
In Damascus senior military commanders are reportedly staying away from buildings thought likely to be targeted.
President Barack Obama told PBS that the US had “not yet made a decision, but the international norm against the use of chemical weapons needs to be kept in place, and hardly anyone disputes that chemical weapons were used in a large scale in Syria against civilian populations”.
“We’ve looked at all the evidence, and we don’t believe the opposition possessed chemical weapons of that sort,” Barack Obama said.
He added he had concluded that the Syrian government carried out the chemical weapons attack.
“There need to be international consequences, so we are consulting with our allies,” he said.
There was “a prospect that chemical weapons could be directed at us – and we want to make sure that doesn’t happen”.
Opinion polls until now have shown very little interest among the US public in getting involved in the Syrian conflict.
In an open letter to the president, US House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner demanded he explain “the intended effect of military strikes”, and how he would prevent the intervention escalating, if he wanted to win public and congressional backing for action.
More than 110 members of Congress have signed a letter formally requesting that Barack Obama seek congressional approval for any action in Syria.
US officials are expected to give senior members of Congress a classified briefing on the evidence that the Syrian government carried out the alleged chemical attack on Thursday.
The US has said it will not take action alone – but one of its primary allies, the UK, has agreed to wait until UN inspectors report back before taking a parliamentary vote on potential action.
Russia rejected a UK push to try to agree a resolution on Syria among permanent UN Security Council members on Wednesday, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying the UN could not consider any draft resolution or proposed action in Syria before the UN weapons inspectors reported back.
The use of force without a sanction of the UN Security Council would be a “crude violation” of international law and “lead to the long-term destabilisation of the situation in the country and the region”, Sergei Lavrov has said.
The UK, US and France are continuing their discussions following the meeting of the five permanent members.
More than 100,000 people are estimated to have died since the conflict erupted in Syria in March 2011, and the conflict has produced at least 1.7 million refugees.
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Thousands of Syrian refugees are pouring over the border into Iraqi Kurdistan, the UN refugee agency says.
Up to 10,000 crossed at Peshkhabour on Saturday, adding to an earlier influx of 7,000 on Thursday.
The UN agencies, the Kurdish regional government and NGOs are struggling to cope, correspondents say.
The UN says the reasons are not fully clear, but there has been a sharp rise in clashes between Syrian Kurds and anti-government Islamist militants.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says this is one of the biggest single waves of refugees it has had to deal with since the uprising against the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.
The latest refugees are mainly families and have come from a broad stretch of territory in northern Syria.
They have been taking advantage of a new pontoon bridge over the Tigris.
Thousands of Syrian refugees are pouring over the border into Iraqi Kurdistan
Some 150,000 Syrian refugees are already registered in Iraq, of the 3 million said to have fled Syria in total since the uprising began.
The UNHCR says its field officers spotted the first group of 750 Syrians before noon on Thursday but in the afternoon, some 5,000 to 7,000 people followed.
The UN said the latest refugees had come from Aleppo, Hassakeh, Qamishli and other areas of conflict.
On Friday, UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva: “The factors allowing this sudden movement are not fully clear to us.”
The UN said it was working with the Iraqi Kurdistan government and other agencies to establish a camp at nearby Darashakran.
“This should open in two weeks, and our hope is it will relieve pressure,” Adrian Edwards said.
The ethnic make-up of the latest wave has not been detailed.
Kurds make up about 10% of the Syrian population and are largely concentrated in the north-east.
They staged their own anti-Assad protests after the Syria conflict began in 2011 and their areas have been run by Kurdish local councils and militia since government forces withdrew last year.
But the Kurdish militias have recently been fighting jihadists of the anti-Assad al-Nusra Front, leaving dozens dead.
The president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, recently threatened to intervene to defend the Kurdish population caught up in Syria’s unrest.
Massoud Barzani said if Kurds were “under threat of death and terrorism” then Iraqi Kurdistan would be “prepared to defend them”.
Iraqi Kurdistan comprises three provinces in northern Iraq. It has its own military and police force.
Syrian rebels’ claims that they attacked President Bashar al-Assad’s convoy have been denied today by the information minister.
Reports that rebel rockets hit his motorcade were “dreams and illusions”, Omran Zoabi told Syrian state TV.
Rebels said they fired mortars at his convoy as it headed towards the Anas bin Malek mosque in the Malki area, where the president has a residence.
Pictures showed Bashar al-Assad unharmed at a prayer service at a Damascus mosque to mark the end of Ramadan.
Earlier, Islam Alloush of the militant Liwa al-Islam Brigade, told Reuters news agency that rebel rockets hit the president’s motorcade as it drove to the mosque in the Syrian capital.
Other activists reported rockets were fired into the same part of the city.
Bashar al-Assad unharmed at a prayer service at a Damascus mosque to mark the end of Ramadan
It was unclear whether the pictures of the president aired on Syrian state television were pre-recorded. For a brief moment they carried a “live” caption, which then swiftly vanished.
It is possible that the footage was pre-recorded, analysts said, as the reports that the president’s convoy was struck while travelling to the mosque had come around one hour previously.
All roads leading to al-Rawdha neighborhood of Damascus, where the presidential office is, were closed for security reasons before the incident, Syrian opposition sources told the pan-Arab Saudi-owned Dubai-based al-Arabiya television station.
Firas al-Bitar, a rebel leader, told al-Arabiya that 17 mortars had targeted the presidential convoy. The opposition had been given advance information on Bashar al-Assad’s movements, he asserted.
But another of the president’s opponents, Wahid Sagar, told Al Arabiya the president might have been in a different convoy to one which reportedly came under attack.
On Wednesday, Syrian government forces claimed to have killed more than 60 rebels in an ambush near Damascus.
Military sources quoted by the state news agency Sana said the victims were insurgents in the jihadist group, al-Nusra Front. They had been planning an attack on a military post, they said.
The news came as rights group Amnesty International released satellite images of Aleppo, one of Syria’s biggest cities, showing how clashes between government and rebel forces had devastated built-up areas.
Syrian army has fully captured Khalidiya district that was a key rebel stronghold in the central city of Homs, state media report.
The Sana news agency said the military had “restored security and stability to the neighborhood of Khalidiya”.
Activists reported clashes in Khalidiya on Monday morning, but said that most of the area was under army control.
The announcement comes a month after troops launched an offensive to oust rebels from Syria’s third largest city.
Homs has been one of the focuses of a two-year nationwide uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, in which the UN says more than 100,000 people have died.
Correspondents say the capture of Khalidiya would add further impetus to the counter-offensive by government troops and their allies, which saw the nearby town of Qusair fall in June.
On Monday, an unnamed army officer told Syrian state television: “Today, we can report having complete control of the area of Khalidiya.”
Syrian army has fully captured Khalidiya district that was a key rebel stronghold in the central city of Homs,
“That was a victory of all our fighters and the whole Syrian Army and especially our dear leader, Bashar al-Assad. And God willing, we will get rid of the terrorists in the entire country and the future will be free of killings and under the control of the army.”
However, UK-based activist group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights cast doubt on the claim.
While the group acknowledged that government forces were in control of most of Khalidiya, it said fighting was continuing on Monday.
“Clashes took place between rebels and regime forces, supported by Hezbollah and National Defence Forces, in the southern parts of the Khalidiya neighborhood,” it said.
“Regime forces are bombarding parts, and military reinforcements are arriving as advancing regime forces try to establish full control.”
Opposition activists told the AFP news agency that about 90% of Khalidiya was now controlled by the army. One told the Associated Press that the battle for the district was “almost over”.
On Sunday, the Arabic TV station al-Mayadeen, which is seen as close to the Syrian government, broadcast what it said was footage of Khalidiya, showing heavily damaged buildings and piles of rubble.
It also showed pictures of the interior of the historic Khaled bin Walid mosque, a focal point for anti-government protesters. Troops reportedly seized it on Saturday, days after activists accused them of firing shells at the tomb of Khaled bin Walid, a revered figure in Islam.
Only the Old City of Homs and a few other districts are still held by the opposition. On Monday, government jets bombed the Bab Hud district of the Old City, just south of Khalidiya, according to the Syrian Observatory.
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Syrian army has killed 13 members of the same family, mostly women and children, activist groups say.
Some reports say some of the victims were burnt alive, in the incident in Bayda near the coastal city of Banias.
The family members were said to be from a mostly Sunni village, but in an area where government supporters have been accused of trying to clear out Sunnis.
Syrian army has killed 13 members of the same family, mostly women and children, in Bayda
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights – which relies on a network on opposition activists on the ground – at least three men from the Fattouh family in Bayda were shot dead by government forces and militia in the latest violence.
Women and children from the same family were then crowded into one room in a house, where they were all killed, it said.
Some reports said they were burnt alive when the house was set on fire, others, that they were shot beforehand.
The reported deaths came after clashes in Banias in which some loyalists died.
The village of Bayda is described as a pocket of Sunni Muslims in the coastal province of Tartus, which is dominated by President Bashar al-Assad’s minority Alawite sect.
Both Bayda and Banias were the scene of what were described as sectarian massacres of Sunni families in May, in which more than 100 people died.
UN says more than 90,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising again Bashar al-Assad began in 2011. A further 1.7 million have been forced to seek shelter in neighboring countries.
Dozens of people have been injured after a car bomb exploded in a stronghold of Lebanon’s Shia militant group Hezbollah in Beirut.
A Red Cross official said 37 people had been hurt in the blast, in the Beir el-Abed area.
TV pictures showed vehicles on fire and a cloud of black smoke. No group has said it was behind the attack.
Dozens of people have been injured after a car bomb exploded in a stronghold of Lebanon’s Shia militant group Hezbollah in Beirut
Rebels in neighboring Syria have threatened to target Hezbollah, which intervened in the fighting there to support President Bashar al-Assad.
Two rockets hit south Beirut in May.
The explosion was caused by a car bomb in the car park of an Islamic centre, Hezbollah-run al-Manar TV said.
Dramatic footage broadcast by the station showed firefighters trying to put out the flames.
“This is a message, but we will not bow,” Hezbollah official Ziad Waked told al-Manar, AP reports.
Hezbollah fighters were instrumental in Syrian government forces’ strategic victory in Qusair in early June.
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G8 leaders have agreed new measures to clamp down on money launderers, illegal tax evaders and corporate tax avoiders.
Governments agreed to give each other automatic access to information on their residents’ tax affairs.
They will also require shell companies – often used to exploit tax loopholes and invest money anonymously – to identify their effective owners.
The summit communiqué urged countries to “fight the scourge of tax evasion”.
The measures are designed to combat illegal evasion of taxes, as well as legal tax avoidance by large corporations that make use of loopholes and tax havens.
The summit in Northern Ireland also saw the launch of free trade negotiations between the EU and US, which UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who was hosting the summit, dubbed “the biggest bilateral trade agreement in history”.
Tax, trade and transparency – dubbed “The Three Ts” – were placed at the top of the UK’s agenda for its presidency of the G8, which consists of the UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Canada and Japan.
But the summit has been overshadowed by the conflict in Syria.
The G8 leaders – including Russian President Vladimir Putin, an ally of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad – backed calls for Syrian peace talks to be held in Geneva “as soon as possible”.
David Cameron said the leaders had managed “to overcome fundamental differences”, but no timetable for the Geneva talks was given, and the statement made no mention of what role Bashar al-Assad could play in the future.
Leaders agreed that multinationals should tell all tax authorities about what taxes they pay and where.
“Countries should change rules that let companies shift their profits across borders to avoid taxes,” the communiqué said.
G8 leaders have agreed new measures to clamp down on money launderers, illegal tax evaders and corporate tax avoiders
It follows revelations about the ways in which several major firms – including Apple, Starbucks and Amazon – have minimized their tax bills.
Illegal activities, including tax evasion and money laundering, will be tackled by the automated sharing of tax information.
Ahead of the summit, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), proposed to share tax information by building on an existing system set up by the US and five major European economies, but on a global scale.
“This international tax tool is going to be a real feature of ensuring that we get proper tax payment and proper tax justice in our world,” said David Cameron, who claimed that it meant “those who want to evade taxes have nowhere to hide”.
The OECD includes all of the G8 members except Russia.
Among the information to be shared will be who actually ultimately benefits from the shadowy shell companies, special purpose companies and trust arrangements often employed by tax evaders and money launderers.
Earlier in the day, Chancellor George Osborne unveiled plans for a UK register of companies and their owners.
The White House also announced a similar plan for the US.
Last week the UK also unveiled a deal with its crown dependencies and overseas territories – including the Channel Islands, Gibraltar and Anguilla – to start sharing more information on which foreign companies bank their profits there.
About a fifth of offshore tax havens, which are used by multinationals to shelter cash from the tax authorities, are British dependencies.
“Of course Britain’s got to put its own house in order,” said George Osborne, adding that the government would launch a consultation on whether the register should be published or just be available to the HMRC.
Speaking during the summit, George Osborne said more progress had been made on reforming the global tax system in the past 24 hours than the “past 24 years”.
The G8 communiqué also demanded more transparency from mining firms.
It follows revelations that many major mining companies use complex ownership structures in the Netherlands and Switzerland to avoid paying taxes on the minerals they extract in developing countries.
“Developing countries should have the information and capacity to collect the taxes owed them,” the communiqué said.
“Other countries have a duty to help them.”
The governments agreed that mining companies should disclose all the payments they make, and that “minerals should not be plundered from conflict zones”.
“We agreed that oil, gas and mining companies should report what they pay to governments, and that governments should publish what they receive, so that natural resources are a blessing and not a curse,” said David Cameron.
The G8 leaders also agreed to stamp out ransom payments to kidnappers for the release of hostages.
David Cameron said tens of millions of dollars in ransom money had been paid around the world in the last three years.
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Leaders at the G8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, are close to signing a joint statement on Syria, despite their differences.
Russia and the US are backing opposite sides in the conflict, but officials say the statement could soon be agreed.
This could include the proposed peace conference in Geneva, and more access for deliveries of humanitarian aid.
The summit, which is now in its final day, is also discussing tax evasion and efforts to boost trade.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow would sign up to the statement on Syria later on Tuesday.
But he stressed the Kremlin wanted each of the Syrian sides in the talks to select not only their own delegations but the future terms of any transitional government.
Sergei Ryabkov sidestepped the question of whether this could leave open a role for President Bashar al-Assad in the future.
Leaders at the G8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, are close to signing a joint statement on Syria, despite their differences
To try to get as much consensus as possible on Syria, UK Prime Minister David Cameron – who is hosting the summit – held a working dinner on Monday night.
The leaders were alone, with no officials present, allowing them to express their views frankly.
After the meeting, British officials appeared more optimistic that an agreement could be reached on the joint statement on Syria.
However, they said it would take more work to agree the precise language.
Earlier on Monday, the British had raised the possibility of the other G8 nations issuing an end-of-conference statement without the participation of Russia.
But it now seems that Vladimir Putin is willing to consider some kind of joint stance, according to officials.
The communiqué is likely to back the launch of Syrian peace negotiations in Geneva, and insist that humanitarian aid agencies like the Red Cross are given access to all parts of the country.
Any statement which emerges may not be all that ambitious, correspondents warn – and even then, it is far from certain that any agreement will change the appalling reality in Syria itself.
The White House announced last week that it would provide military aid to the Syrian rebels. Russia meanwhile supplies weapons to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Presidents Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin met for an hour of bilateral talks on Monday, and at a sombre press conference afterwards it was clear they had had a difficult exchange.
Both presidents acknowledged their differences but said they shared a common desire to stop the bloodshed.
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