In shock move, Obama puts  Image released by The White House shows US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on August 31, 2013.AFP President Barack Obama postponed threatened missile strikes against To general surprise, the This effectively pushed military action back until at least September 9, when Obama insisted that he reserves the right to strike regardless of Congress' decision, and a White House official said the pause would also allow him time to build international support. The Arab League meets in But the toughest battle, and perhaps the most dangerous for Obama's credibility, may yet be with his own former colleagues in Congress, where support for strikes is far from assured. Indeed, observers warned that he faces the same fate as Prime Minister David Cameron, who on Friday lost his own vote on authorizing military action in the British parliament. "The chairman of the joint chiefs has informed me that we are prepared to strike whenever we choose," Obama warned, in an address given in the White House Rose Garden. "Moreover, the chairman has indicated to me that our capacity to execute this mission is not time sensitive. It will be effective tomorrow or next week or one month from now." At least five And "The Syrian army is fully ready, its finger on the trigger to face any challenge or scenario that they want to carry out," Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said. And the head of "The fact that the Americans believe that military intervention will be limited to within Syrian borders is an illusion," said commander Mohammad Ali Jafari. Shortly before Obama's remarks, a team of UN inspectors left The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said that analysis of samples taken at the site would take up to three weeks. A UN spokesman promised they would give a fair report after conducting these lab tests, but Washington and its allies insist they already know all they need to know. Obama's administration says it already has reliable intelligence that the regime launched a chemical onslaught that killed 1,429 people, including at least 426 children. That brought a contemptuous response from President Vladimir Putin of "It is a very serious thing indeed when President Obama tries to take the place of UN bodies, and that he has tried and convicted the Syrian government, and that he has decided to invade, to militarily attack the people of Syria, and that he has chosen the US Congress as as a sort of high world court in place of the UN Security Council," Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said in Guyana. In Residents were seen stocking up with fuel for generators in case utilities are knocked out by a strike. The Officials said Obama would lobby world powers on the sidelines of next week's St Petersburg G20 summit, while at home the White House was reaching out to lawmakers. Obama's Democrats control the Senate but the House of Representatives is in the hands of his Republican foes and both sides are divided on the issue, making the outcome uncertain. Late Saturday the White House formally asked Congress for authorization to conduct military strikes in The document says support from Congress would "send a clear signal of American resolve." "The objective of the Republican Senator Bob Corker, who supports a limited "surgical" strike against "I think it is problematic and it could be problematic in both bodies," Corker warned. In a further complication, hawkish senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, said they could not support Obama's plan for limited strikes that would not topple Assad. More than 100,000 people have died since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011, and two million have become refugees, half of them children, according to the United Nations. AFP |
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