Rebels, not Assad, behind chemical attack, says Putin

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed in a New York Times opinion piece that the Syrian rebels, and not the Assad government, were behind a recent alleged chemical attack.

In A Plea for Caution from Russia, he said there was no doubt that chemical weapons had been used in the Syrian conflict but “there is every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian Army, but by opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons, who would be siding with the fundamentalists”.

The article, which was addressed directly to the American people and their leaders, calls on the United States to avoid the use of force and “return to the path of civilised diplomatic and political settlement” in Syria. It also urged the US to respect international law and not act without the authorisation of the United Nations Security Council.

The opinion piece, which appeared on the 9/11 anniversary, is likely to annoy the administration of US President Barack Obama, which has been struggling to devise a way to respond to an alleged chemical weapons attack on rebel-held suburbs of Damascus last month, which the White House estimates killed at least 1,429 people.

The US administration has blamed the Assad regime for the attack, saying it has evidence it was carried out by government forces.

Mr Putin said a US strike against President Bashar Al Assad would result in more innocent victims and potentially spread the conflict “far beyond Syria’s borders”.

Instead of military action, America should embrace a plan from Moscow that would see Syria’s chemical weapons placed under international control, he wrote.

Mr Putin said it was alarming that intervening militarily in foreign countries’ internal conflicts had become “commonplace” for the US.

“Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy, but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan ‘you’re either with us or against us’.”

In the final paragraph, Mr Putin, who is Syria’s most prominent ally, took aim at Mr Obama and his mention of US exceptionalism in his speech to the nation earlier this week. “It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation,” he wrote.

“There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too,” he wrote. “We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”

But Mr Putin said his “working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust”.

“I welcome the President’s interest in continuing the dialogue with Russia on Syria,” he said. “We must work together to keep this hope alive, as we agreed to at the Group of 8 meeting in Lough Erne in Northern Ireland in June, and steer the discussion back toward negotiations.”

Mr Obama said in his speech on Tuesday that he had asked Congress to put off a vote on his request to authorise military action in Syria to let diplomacy play out around a Russian proposal to put Syrian chemical weapons under international control, although he said the threat was still needed to ensure Syria complies.

The Daily Telegraph