US Senators agree draft resolution on Syria

A US Senate resolution authorising President Barack Obama to use military force against Syria would bar American ground troops fro combat operations and set a deadline for any action.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the draft resolution that the Foreign Relations Committee will vote on.

The measure would set a time limit of 60 days and says the president can extend that for 30 days more with congressional approval.

Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the committee, and Senator Bob Corker, the top Republican, agreed on the measure early this morning.

Mr Obama gained ground yesterday with his drive for backing for a military strike against Syria, winning critical support from the top Republican in Washington.

Key Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to back legislation ruling out the use of US ground troops in any military response to a suspected chemical weapons attack.

The Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner, said taking action is something “the United States as a country needs to do”.

He emerged from a meeting at the White House and said the US has “enemies around the world that need to understand that we’re not going to tolerate this type of behaviour”.

Mr Obama on Saturday unexpectedly stepped back from ordering a military strike under his own authority and announced he would seek congressional approval.

The president urged Congress to hold a prompt vote once it returns from holiday next week.

He also tried to assure the public that involvement in Syria will be a “limited, proportional step”.

The president said: “This is not Iraq, and this is not Afghanistan.”

He met top politicians hours before he leaves on a three-day trip to Europe, with a visit to Sweden and a G-20 summit in Russia.

Officials said the draft resolution would receive a vote on Wednesday in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Approval is likely.

The White House had no immediate reaction to the Senate measure, although Secretary of State John Kerry signalled that the troop restriction was acceptable to the administration.

“There’s no problem in our having the language that has zero capacity for American troops on the ground,” he said.

“President Obama is not asking America to go to war,” he added. “This is not the time to be spectators to slaughter.”

The US says it has proof that the Assad regime is behind sarin gas attacks that Washington claims killed at least 1,429 people, including more than 400 children.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which collects information from a network of anti-regime activists, says it has so far only been able to confirm 502 dead.

The Obama administration argues that the US must exert global leadership in retaliating for what apparently was the deadliest use of chemical weapons anywhere over the past 25 years.

Mr Boehner’s support is key, but opposition Republicans in Congress do not speak with one voice.

And after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, polls show most Americans opposed to any new military action overseas.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged caution. He said any punitive action against Syria could unleash more turmoil and bloodshed, and advised that such strikes would be legal only in self-defence under the UN Charter or if approved by the organisation’s Security Council.

Russia and China have repeatedly used their veto power in the council to block action against Assad.

Among major allies, only France has publicly offered to join the US in a strike, although President Francois Hollande says he will await Congress’ decision. The British House of Commons rejected a military strike last week.

In the Middle East, Israel and the US conducted a joint missile test over the Mediterranean in a display of military might in the region.