Panetta: No use of force in Syria without U.N.’s OK
Administration struggling over U.S. role
ABOARD AN AIR FORCE JET – Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S. should not take military action in Syria without authorization by the United Nations, a position seemingly at odds with that of another senior U.S. official who said the diplomatic channel has reached an impasse.
Panetta’s comments, made Thursday aboard a U.S. Air Force aircraft on his way to Asia, came a day after U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said military action without U.N. backing in response to continuing bloodshed in Syria was becoming the “most probable scenario.”
Asked whether there was a scenario in which the U.S could act militarily without U.N. approval, Panetta said, “No, I cannot envision that.”
The Pentagon is doing contingency planning for military action in Syria, Panetta said, and left the door open to possible military intervention in the future. But he stuck by the administration’s position that it would do so only with broad international support.
“Ultimately, the international community and the president of the United States are going to have to decide what steps we take,” he told reporters aboard his plane.
The differing statements reflect the struggle within the Obama administration to come up with a viable plan for halting the killing as the regime of President Bashar Assad is continuing a brutal crackdown on opposition forces seeking to drive him from power.
The pressure on the Obama administration to consider military steps has intensified after a massacre last week of more than 100 people, mostly children and women, in the Syrian township of Houla. Then, this week, U.N. observers in Syria reported finding the bodies of 13 men who had been bound and apparently executed at close range.
The administration has called for Assad to step down, but its efforts have focused on using sanctions and diplomatic pressure on the regime. Russia, one of Syria’s strongest allies, joined a Security Council statement condemning the recent killings but is blocking further economic sanctions.