Washington: The US has ruled out military
option in Syria, as it believes it could only escalate the
humanitarian crisis there, but vowed to ramp up pressure on
Syrian regime by involving the international community.
The White House said a proposal for air strikes "has come
up" for discussion.
"....part of what concerns us about that type of proposal
is that could actually escalate the humanitarian crisis
without solving the problem," said a White House official on
condition of anonymity when asked about the military options
in Syria as was done in the case of Libya.
The environment and circumstances in Syria is much more
different from that in Libya, with whom it is often compared,
the official said.
"You know, you could have more people killed, more
violence, more militarization of the situation in Syria
without essentially reversing the situation on the ground,"
the official said in an interaction with a group of
journalist.
The official, however, said the elements of a strategy in
Syria includes the international community working to pressure
the Assad regime, provide humanitarian assistance, and provide
a support structure for political transition. "And that
includes engaging the opposition and the Syrian National
Council in particular go forward."
He said the US will continue work the Friends of Syria
group that`s been established to look at all "possible means
of providing assistance to the Syrian people and putting
pressure on the Syrian regime".
The UN has estimated that over 7,500 people have been
killed since the uprising against President Bashar Assad`s
regime began a year ago.
The White House official said the US and its allies in
Europe, the Arab League, and Turkey "are working together to
call for an end to the violence, call for Assad to step down,
to support a transition to a new Syrian government, to figure
out ways to provide humanitarian assistance into the country,
to coordinate sanctions that cut off the Syrian regime`s
assets to the revenue they need to continue their crackdown,
to encourage defections among Syrian leadership".
"We believe that that can have a material impact that we
can choke off resources to the regime, that we can incentive
through those actions defections from within the Syrian
regime, and we can be there to support a transition," he said.
In terms of a military intervention, the differences
between the situation in Syria and Libya include but go beyond
the UN. "It`s certainly true that in Libya one had UNSC
mandate which was important to supporting US efforts".
The official said in Libya you had a very viable military
option in the sense that the situation that presented itself a
year ago was an advancing army that could essentially be
stopped in certain areas, thereby creating civilian protection
zones, giving space to the opposition from the air in
particular.
"In Syria, it`s a much more difficult environment because
you basically have regime security forces that are in many
respects intermingled with the population," the official said.
He said a lot of "the catastrophic violence" is taking
place through artillery, through shelling, through snipers.
"And for those reasons, there`s not simple military
options that present themselves as well. So that too is a
difference," the official said.
The UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos has raised
concerns regarding the humanitarian situation in Syria with
the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem in Damascus.
After a two-day recent visit to Syria, the UN official
said she was "horrified" to see the destruction in the country
and stressed that aid workers should be given regular and
unhindered access to help people in areas affected by the
year-long fighting and violence.
PTI
