German Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly ruled out her country’s participation in any US led military strike against Assad’s regime, while the British parliament has also rejected the idea.
But Obama said in Sweden: “I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line,” referring to international rules banning the use of chemical weapons, even in case of war.
The Syria conflict has still not been formally pencilled into the agenda of the G20 summit on the shores of the Gulf of Finland at a former Imperial palace outside Saint Petersburg.
But discussions about the Syria crisis still threaten to completely overshadow leaders’ efforts to promote a crucial economic agenda of stimulating growth and cracking down on tax avoidance.
UN Arab League envoy Brahimi is on his way to Russia to help Secretary General Ban Ki moon push on margins of the G20 summit for an international peace conference on Syria, the UN spokesperson said.
The United Nations is making a desperate new bid for a Syria peace conference even as the United States prepares a possible military strike, according to diplomats.
“It is time for the parties to stop fighting and start talking. The Syrian people need peace,” Ban said in a lecture at Saint Petersburg State University Wednesday.
Obama will hold meetings on the sidelines of the G20 with French President Francois Hollande, the main foreign backer of a strike on Syria, as well as the leaders of China and Japan.
While no formal bilateral sit down meeting is planned with Putin, a White House official suggested there would likely be some kind of more informal conversation.
Russian and US ties have sunk to a new low since the Cold War, over deep seated divisions over Syria, Russia’s granting of asylum to US fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden and a string of Russian laws seen as repressive.
Putin told members of his human rights council in the Kremlin that only the UN Security Council can give approval for the use of force against another state and any attack without UN blessing would amount to an “aggression”.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad told AFP that his government was ready to retaliate in case of foreign military action.
“The Syrian government will not change position even if there is World War III. No Syrian can sacrifice the independence of his country,” Muqdad said.
International aid agency Oxfam called on the G20 to overcome their differences on Syria saying: “The timing of this G20 is critical. Leaders in St Petersburg must not let ordinary Syrians down.”
Western military action against Syria had looked imminent last week, but Obama deferred the move and is seeking congressional backing in a vote scheduled for next Monday.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday gave its backing by a 10-7 vote for the use of force.
Senate leaders said the full chamber will vote next week on the motion, when Obama is expected to carry the day.
The amended resolution authorises military intervention with a 90-day deadline and bars US boots on the ground for combat purposes.
The House of Representatives will also begin its deliberations next week.
Since British lawmakers voted down a bid for strikes against the regime, Washington has found a firm partner in France.
Now in its third year, the popular uprising against the Assad regime has cost more than 100,000 lives.
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