Syria: Americans Have Asked the UN Not to Continue Its Mission

An American attack against the Syrian government seems imminent. “U.S. officials have conveyed the message to the U.N. that it was better for the on-site inspectors not to extend their mission,” said a Western diplomatic source familiar with the matter.

The United States “did not explicitly ask them to leave Syria, but told them that intelligence services had evidence of a chemical attack last week near Damascus by the regime [which caused between 300 and 1,000 deaths], and that they therefore no longer needed to continue their mission there,” the source added.

As in Iraq in Dec. 1998, the start of the U.N. inspection mission in Damascus is the sign of imminent military strikes against the government of Bashar al-Assad. In 1998, the United States bombed for four days symbols of power for Saddam Hussein just hours after the departure of the U.N. mission in Baghdad, as he was accused of hiding chemical weapons. On Tuesday, the team of inspectors from the U.N. used a lack of security as an excuse not to leave their hotel in Damascus.

According to Foreign Policy magazine, U.S. intelligence intercepted a phone call from a panicked Syrian military man, asking his superiors for answers after the chemical attack against suburbs of Damascus on Aug. 21.

Using our diplomatic source, “by saying they would not wage war, the Russians gave their approval to a limited U.S. attack” against its ally in Damascus. This is not intended to change the regime in Syria, a U.S. spokesman said yesterday. “This is to weaken Assad in order to put him into a weak position at the Geneva Conference,” said the diplomat. “What the rebels have not been able to do for two years against the Assad army, that is to say, to change the balance of forces on the ground, the West will do by bombing the army bases in the hope of strengthening the poor Syrian opposition,” says our source. A strike against the presidential palace in Damascus is probably not on the radar of U.S. strategists; however, another against Bashar al-Assad’s residence in his Latakia stronghold could be.

To strengthen the so-called moderate opposition supported by the West, strikes linked to al-Qaida against the jihadists are not excluded. “Otherwise, this military operation is only going to strengthen the most radical Islamists, and this can only help the fiercely anti-Islamic Russians swallow the pill of military intervention against their ally,” said the diplomat, who highlights U.S. reluctance to engage the force on Friday, the day of prayer for Muslims. The window of opportunity opens from Wednesday, tonight.