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Pentagon extends deployment of US warships near Syria

Iran Press TV

Fri Sep 13, 2013 10:19AM GMT

The Pentagon has announced that two US warships deployed in the coastal waters near Syria would stay there beyond their scheduled deployments as Washington continues to threaten Syria with the use of force.

On Thursday, US military leaders extended the deployments of the USS Barry in the eastern Mediterranean and the USS Nimitz in the Red Sea, reported the Wall Street Journal.

The USS Barry is one of the four US destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean which was scheduled to return to the US in early September. The USS Barry is armed with long-range Tomahawk missiles.

The USS Nimitz is an aircraft carrier that was to leave the Middle East for the Pacific region but, as announced by the Pentagon, will remain in the Red Sea should the administration of President Obama give the green light to launching military strikes against Syria.

Obama has sent a draft resolution to Capitol Hill for military action against Syria over the accusations that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons in an attack near capital Damascus on August 21.

Damascus has categorically rejected the accusations and even Obama's top aide, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, has admitted that Washington's claims are based on a "common-sense test" not any "irrefutable" evidence.

Moreover, a classified document from the US intelligence community's National Ground Intelligence Center obtained by WND has shown the US military knew that foreign-backed militants in Syria had sarin gas and used it in an attack on civilians and Syrian government forces last March.

The leaked document suggests, former director of the US Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare Yossef Bodansky indicated, that the alleged chemical attack of August 21 near Damascus was perpetrated by the militants to provoke a US military intervention in the Middle Eastern country.

On Tuesday, Obama asked Congress to delay a vote on his call for the use of military force against Syria after Russia proposed that Syria put its chemical weapons under the control of the United Nations, a proposal that was welcomed by Damascus.

Syria became a full member of the international treaty prohibiting chemical weapons after its ambassador to the United Nations submitted relevant documents on Thursday.

In an interview with a Russian TV channel on Thursday, President Assad described his proposal to begin submitting data on his country's chemical weapons within a month of signing the Chemical Weapons Convention as "a standard procedure."

However, speaking at a news conference in Geneva where he met with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry said, "There is nothing standard about this process."

Kerry also pushed the idea that Washington might still attack Syria, insisting that the US attack could happen if President Assad does not agree with some totally unspecified timetable.

Washington's repeated threats of use of force against Syria and the extended deployments of its warships near the Arab country come as US troops and the American public have voiced their opposition to the administration's war plans.

An online survey conducted by the Military Times Monday and Tuesday has found that almost 75 percent of active-duty US troops oppose military strikes against Syria.

Moreover, a Reuters-Ipsos poll released on Monday showed that 63 percent of Americans oppose attacking Syria. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll has also shown that nearly 60 percent of Americans are against missile strikes on Syria.

ISH/ISH