President Barack Obama said he is willing to move ahead with a limited military strike on Syria, with or without an endorsement from the United Nations, New York Times reported on Thursday. Some reports suggest that a strike could occur as soon as U.N. inspectors leave on Saturday.
The White House, in a scheduled intelligence briefing with Congress on Thursday night, intends to send a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad that chemical weapons in warfare is simply unacceptable, something that occurred last week. The administration believes that it has enough evidence to carry out a limited strike, which would deter the Syrian government from using these weapons again, news reports said.
The U.S. President will base his case for a strike since he hopes to safeguard international standards against the use of chemical weapons. It also hopes to defend the country's allies and national interests in the region, most notably in Turkey, Jordan and Israel.
"We have been trying to get the UN Security Council to be more assertive on Syria even before this incident," Benjamin J. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, also said Thursday.
"The problem is that the Russians won't vote for any accountability."
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister David Cameron lost a key vote within the British Parliament, which would not allow him to join with the Americans in a potential strike.
The five permanent UN Security Council members met again on Thursday to discuss the appropriate response to last week's chemical attack. The meeting lasted for just under an hour but US, British, French, Chinese or Russian diplomats declined to comment to reporters after it.
One diplomat said it was not clear why Russia had called for the meeting as nothing new was raised.
"There's no further P5 (permanent council members) meeting scheduled but that could change," a diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The five Security Council members had an also an inconclusive meeting on Wednesday.
Over 100,000 people have been killed in the Syrian civil war, according to UN estimates.
