St Petersburg, 06/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - The G20 summit has not brought any shift in positions between the supporters and opponents of military intervention in Syria.
In agreement on condemning the barbarism of the acts committed, the world leaders cannot agree on what response should be delivered. Russia's President Vladimir Putin spoke clearly of two camps - on one side, the USA, France, Turkey, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the UK are in favour of military action targeting the Syrian regime; on the other, Germany, Indonesia, China, Russia, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, South Africa, the UN and even the Pope are opposed to any military intervention. In Putin's view, the chemical attacks are a set-up by rebel forces to provoke an international response. Putin described the meeting he had with the US president as “cordial” but during the course of this “each stayed in his position”.
Obama believed that the world could not stand by. During the summit, 11 of the G20 countries (Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey, the UK and USA) adopted a statement arguing that, if the use of use of chemical weapons is not punished, it increases the risk of the further use and proliferation of these weapons. Attributing the responsibility for the use of these chemical weapons to the Syrian regime, they called for “a strong international response to this serious violation of the rules”. Deploring the fact that the UN Security Council has been paralysed for two and a half years, they believe that the world cannot wait indefinitely.
In the view of Italy's Prime Minister Enrico Letta, “the international community is on a knife-edge” - the use of chemical weapons cannot remain unanswered and, at the same time, the diplomatic process in the UN must be supported. He was concerned about the “dissension” among Europeans. By way of reassurance, France - the only country in the EU that has decided to use force - said that an attack would not take place before the UN inspectors had delivered their report on the use of chemical weapons. “Are we going to wait for the inspectors' report? Yes, we are going to wait for the inspectors' report, just like we are going to wait for the vote in the American Congress”, said France's President François Hollande.
On Friday, on the initiative of the UK, a dozen of the G20 members discussed how to increase humanitarian aid. Two million people have so far fled the war (our translation throughout). (MB/transl.fl)