WarSclerotic

Panetta: No military intervention in Syria without UN backing | The Times of Israel.

US defense secretary’s comments come on the heels of more aggressive statements from Clinton, Rice

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at NATO headquarters in April. (photo credit: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

S Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says he does not see his country taking military action in Syria without the backing of a UN Security Council resolution — something that so far appears unlikely because of opposition from Russia.

Panetta says his greatest responsibility is to make sure that if US troops are deployed in any military role, that America has the support it needs from the international community.

His comments Thursday came a day after Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, suggested that some type of military intervention may be the only remaining option because diplomatic efforts so far have failed to remove Syrian President Bashar Assad from power.

“No, I cannot envision that,” Panetta said when asked about military action without UN backing. Still he said that all options remain on the table and that the Pentagon is planning for “any contingency.”

“But, ultimately, you know, the international community and the president of the United States are going to have to decide what steps to take,” Panetta told reporters traveling with him to the Shangri-La Dialogue, a prominent defense conference in Singapore.

While he called the tumult in Syria an intolerable situation, his comments were more measured than other US leaders Thursday, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who lashed out at Russia for continuing its support of Assad.

Speaking on Russia’s doorstep in Denmark, Clinton derided the Russian government for continuing to support Assad, even after last week’s massacre of more than 100 people in the town of Houla. In pointed remarks Thursday, she said Russia’s position “is going to help contribute to a civil war” and rejected Russian officials’ insistence that their stance actually is helping to ease the crisis.

On the first stop of a European tour, Clinton said Russia and China would have to be on board before the US and other nations might engage in what could become a protracted conflict in support of a disorganized rebel force.

Russia, along with China, has twice vetoed UN Security Council sanctions against Syria. Russia is Syria’s closest ally other than isolated Iran, and Clinton said that without its support the international community is essentially frozen from taking concrete steps to end the violence.

“The Russians keep telling us they want to do everything they can to avoid a civil war because they believe that the violence would be catastrophic,” Clinton said, noting that they are “vociferous in their claim that they are providing a stabilizing influence.”

“I reject that,” she said, complaining that in fact Russia is propping up Assad as his government continues a brutal, 15-month crackdown on dissent in which some 13,000 people have died.

In an interview with CNN, former US president Bill Clinton said he sympathized with President Barack Obama and his administration, which so far has refused to intervene unilaterally in Syria. He compared the worsening situation under Assad to the crisis in Bosnia, which he had to deal with as president in the 1990s.

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