WarSclerotic

Washington will not be able to let Syrian President Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons against civilians go unpunished and the West is sure to retaliate against the rogue regime, International, Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said Sunday.

Speaking to Army Radio, Steinitz said he believed that should the U.S. mount an attack on Syria, it would brief Israel on the matter beforehand. The minister further said that despite Syria’s recent threats, Assad was unlikely to rush to launch an attack on Israel in retaliation.

Syria warned Saturday that any Western-led attack on its regime would “set the Middle East ablaze.”

“I’m not so sure that any American strike on Syria will lead to a Syrian attack on Israel. I believe that the chances of that are actually slim,” Steinitz said. “Regardless, we have to be ready in terms of both our defensive options and our offensive ones.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday that “what happened in Syria was a horrible tragedy and a terrible crime. Our hearts go out to the women, children and babies who were so brutally struck down by weapons of mass destruction. This situation cannot go on. The most dangerous regimes in the world cannot be allowed to have the most dangerous weapons in the world.”

Israel, he said, “always has one finger on the pulse [of the Middle East] and another finger — if necessary — on the trigger. We will always know how to defend itself and its citizens against those who wish it harm. That is the principle that is guiding this government.”

President Shimon Peres, in a meeting Sunday with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, said it was time to remove chemical weapons from Syria.

“There is a ruler in Syria who is killing people without any compunction. Nobody can remain indifferent to the murder of children. The moral outcry is above all other interests. It is time for a coordinated, international effort to remove all chemical weapons from Syria. It is unacceptable to leave them there, whether in Assad’s hands or in the hands of others,” Peres said.

The Israeli remarks were made as the Pentagon confirmed that the U.S. Central Command and the Jordanian Armed Forces would co-host Middle East defense chiefs in Jordan over the next three days to discuss the region’s security environment. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, is attending the meeting.

The meeting, which has been planned since June, comes as the U.S. and other nations ponder what action to take, if any, in the wake of reports that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons in its civil war. Although Syria denies such claims, they are certain to be a leading topic for the gathering.

Over the weekend, U.S. President Barack Obama ordered the U.S. Sixth Fleet to keep the USS Mahan in Mediterranean waters instead of letting it return to its home port in Norfolk, Virginia. The move has been perceived as a prelude to a possible military action against Assad’s regime.

Three other U.S. destroyers are currently deployed in Mediterranean Sea: the USS Gravely, the USS Barry and the USS Rampage.

Obama stressed Friday that a quick intervention in the Syrian civil war was problematic, given the international considerations that should precede a military strike.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel declined to discuss any specific naval movements, while saying that Obama had asked the Pentagon to prepare military options for Syria. U.S. defense officials said that the navy had sent a fourth warship armed with ballistic missiles into the eastern Mediterranean Sea but without immediate orders for any missile launch into Syria.

“The Defense Department has a responsibility to provide the president with options for contingencies, and that requires positioning our forces, positioning our assets, to be able to carry out different options — whatever options the president might choose,” Hagel told reporters traveling with him to Asia.

Hagel said the U.S. is coordinating with the international community to determine “what exactly did happen” near Damascus earlier this week. He left little doubt that he thinks the attack in Syria involved chemical weapons, although he stressed there is not yet a final answer. In discussing the matter, he said, “it appears to be what happened — use of chemical weapons.”

The U.N. disarmament chief, Angela Kane, arrived in Damascus on Saturday to press the Syrian government to allow U.N. experts to investigate the alleged chemical attacks.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke over the weekend with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem “to make clear that if, as they claimed, the Syrian regime has nothing to hide, it should have allowed immediate and unimpeded access to the site rather than continuing to attack the affected area to block access and destroy evidence,” a U.S. official was quoted by The Guardian as saying

“In all these calls, the secretary emphasized the importance of quickly determining the facts and underscored the seriousness and gravity of any chemical weapons use,” the official said.

Obama remained cautious about getting involved in a war that has killed more than 100,000 people and now includes Hezbollah and al-Qaida. He made no mention of the “red line” of chemical weapons use that he marked out for Assad a year ago and that U.S. intelligence says has been breached at least on a small scale several times since.

“If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a U.N. mandate and without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it — do we have the coalition to make it work?” Obama said Friday. “Those are considerations that we have to take into account.”

Obama conceded in an interview on CNN’s “New Day” that last Wednesday’s incident was a “big event of grave concern.”

“It is very troublesome,” he said. “That starts getting to some core national interests that the United States has, both in terms of us making sure that weapons of mass destruction are not proliferating, as well as needing to protect our allies, our bases in the region.”

Speaking with anchor Chris Cuomo, Obama defended his administration’s decision to not intervene militarily in the conflict so far, saying, “I think it is fair to say that, as difficult as the problem is, this is something that is going to require America’s attention and hopefully the entire international community’s attention.”

A White House spokesman said Friday that the administration has long maintained that “all options remain on the table” over Syria, but Obama had indicated in the past that he had “no plans to place American boots on the ground.”