{"id":9869,"date":"2013-09-01T06:32:12","date_gmt":"2013-09-01T06:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=9869"},"modified":"2013-09-01T06:32:12","modified_gmt":"2013-09-01T06:32:12","slug":"us-attack-on-syria-would-be-gross-violation-of-international-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=9869","title":{"rendered":"‘US attack on Syria would be gross violation of international law’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Putin<\/a>
Putin: US claims that Syria is responsible for chemical attack is utter nonsense<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Russia dramatically escalated its denunciations of American threats to attack Syrian military targets on Saturday, with President Vladimir Putin saying it would have been \u201cutter nonsense\u201d for the Syrian government to use chemical weapons as the Obama administration alleges.<\/p>\n

The Foreign Ministry said a U.S. attack would be a \u201cgross violation\u201d of international law.<\/p>\n

Speaking out for the first time since an apparent chemical weapons attack near Damascus on Aug. 21, Putin called on President Obama to find a nonviolent way out of the crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to address Obama as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate: Before using force in Syria, it would be good to think about future casualties,\u201d Putin told Russian news agencies in Vladivostok during a tour of the country\u2019s flood-stricken Far East.<\/p>\n

\u201cRussia is urging you to think twice before making a decision on an operation in Syria,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Putin said he was sure the attack was the work of rebels trying to provoke international \u2014 and especially American \u2014 involvement in the Syrian conflict. The government of Bashar al-Assad, he said, would have had no reason to use chemical weapons at a time when it had gained the upper hand in the fighting.<\/p>\n

Doing so, he said, would have been \u201cutter nonsense\u2019\u2019 \u2013 with the clear implication that that is how he would characterize the American allegations.<\/p>\n

On top of that, he said, the Obama administration\u2019s \u201cclaims that proof exists, but is classified and cannot be presented to anybody, are below criticism. This is plain disrespect for their partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putin\u2019s comments were soon underlined by a stern statement from the Foreign Ministry. After U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul had finished a meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Saturday, the ministry declared, \u201cRussia has expressed its conviction that any forceful action against Syria that the U.S. could carry out in circumvention of the U.N. Security Council would be an act of aggression and a gross violation of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putin said he was surprised by the vote in Britain\u2019s Parliament on Thursday not to join a U.S. attack on Syrian military targets. \u201cIt shows that there are people guided by common sense there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Obama arrives in St. Petersburg for the G20 meeting on Thursday and leaves on Friday. The purpose of the gathering is to discuss economic growth, but the White House acknowledges there will be plenty of conversation about Syria on the side. There are currently no plans for a one-on-one meeting between Putin and Obama, who earlier this month decided not to attend a Moscow summit with the Russian president.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the head of the foreign affairs committee of the lower house of parliament, Alexei Pushkov, said the Nobel committee should strip Obama of his 2009 Peace Prize if he launches an attack on Syria. – Washington Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia dramatically escalated its denunciations of American threats to attack Syrian military targets on Saturday, with President Vladimir Putin saying it would have been \u201cutter nonsense\u201d for the Syrian government to use chemical weapons as the Obama administration alleges. The Foreign Ministry said a U.S. attack would be a \u201cgross violation\u201d of international law. Speaking … Continue reading “‘US attack on Syria would be gross violation of international law’”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3,10],"tags":[5730,5731,5406,5728,3195,5727,90,5725,198,5729,5726],"class_list":["post-9869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","category-united-states","tag-2009-peace-prize","tag-alexei-pushkov","tag-chemical-weapons","tag-deputy-foreign-minister-sergei-ryabkov","tag-g20","tag-nobel-peace-prize-laureate","tag-obama","tag-president-vladimir-putin","tag-syria","tag-u-n-security-council","tag-violation-of-international-law"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/putin3.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9871,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9869\/revisions\/9871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}