Pentagon Chief Admits Military Intervention in Syria Only With the Approval of the UN

U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said that any military action to resolve the situation in Syria must have the backing of the UN, writes the Telegraph today.

In addition, Panetta said he “cannot imagine” the possibility of U.S. support for military intervention in Syria without the appropriate authorization from the UN.

The minister also called the recent wave of violence in Syria “unacceptable.”

Earlier, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that U.S. authorities do not believe that “further militarization of the situation in Syria at this point is the right course of action.”

Several countries launched criticism of the Syrian authorities after the slaughter in the town of Houla, where over a hundred people were killed, including women and children, on the 25th and 26th of May.

On May 29, the French president, Francois Hollande, said he did not rule out a military operation against Syria, but only with the support of the Security Council of the UN.

In turn, Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr supported France and stressed the need to establish a unanimous Security Council in the UN and take into consideration Russia and China’s criticisms of the military operation in Libya.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that certain countries are beginning to use the Houla tragedy as a pretext for military action and that they intend to pressure the Security Council of the UN.

Between May 25 and 26, more than one hundred people died in the massacred Syrian village of Houla. UN Security Council condemned the attack in an urgent meeting convened on May 27.

The Syrian authorities deny involvement in the killing and blame Islamist militants. The attack came on the eve of Annan’s visit to Damascus.

Yesterday, Thursday, the head of the commission investigating the incident, General Jamal Suleiman Qassem, said that the slaughter in the town of Houla was the work of armed anti-government groups. Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador to the UN described the findings of the commission as an “outrageous lie.”

For a year, Syria has been the scene of armed clashes between security and opposition forces that have caused over 9,000 deaths, according to UN estimates. Meanwhile, the country’s authorities report more than 2,500 deaths among military and law enforcement officers and at least 3,200 deaths among the civilian population.

Last October and February, fearing a possible foreign military intervention in Syria, Russia and China as permanent members of the UN Security Council, used its veto to block the resolution against Damascus.

In the middle of last April, the first group of UN observers arrived in the Arab country to monitor the cease-fire declared as part of the peace plan of UN special envoy to the Arab League and Syria, Kofi Annan.