SitiWanMahani - G20: Obama di bawah tekanan untuk tidak menyerang. Presiden Amerika Syarikat, Barack Obama sedang menghadapi tekanan yang semakin meningkat daripada Presiden Rusia Vladimir Putin tidak melancarkan serangan ketenteraan terhadap Syria. Pada mesyuarat G20 di St Petersburg, perbincangan diteruskan makan malam rasmi di Istana Peterhof.
Perselisihan bannyak yang Syria dibayangi perbincangan mengenai ekonomi DUNIA. Sementara itu, Kremlin telah menolak tuduhan Rusia memberi bantuan senjata kimia ke Syria. Sergei Ivanov, Kremlin Ketua Turus, jelas sangat marah: “Selepas saya mendengar Ketua Pentagon berkata Rusia membekalkan senjata kimia ke Syria, maka dia memperbetulkan sendiri mengatakan ia bukan senjata kimia, tetapi cara-cara untuk pembangunan dan pengeluaran. Ini, saya minta maaf jika saya hilang sabar saya, sampah, sampah semata-mata, “katanya.
Di Lithuania, Menteri Pertahanan EU bertemu pada hari Khamis untuk cuba untuk bekerja di luar pendirian yang sama ke atas Syria. Catherine Ashton, Ketua EU Diplomasi, tidak langsung menyalahkan Presiden Assad untuk serangan kimia 4 Ogos:
“Saya tidak pernah mendengar sesiapa yang berkata kepada saya bahawa ini tidak menjadi serangan kimia. Saya telah bercakap dengan negara-negara yang berbeza, sesetengah daripada mereka mungkin mengambil pandangan yang berbeza yang pelaku itu, tetapi tiada siapa yang berhujah soalannya,” katanya. Setiausaha Negara Amerika Syarikat John Kerry dijadualkan tiba di Lithuania pada hari Sabtu untuk menolak pendirian yang sukar terhadap Assad daripada rakan-rakan EU beliau.
G20: Obama under pressure not to attack . . .
American president Barack Obama is facing growing pressure from Russia's president Vladimir Putin not to launch military strikes against Syria. At the G20 meeting in St Petersburg, discussions continued over a formal dinner at the Peterhof palace.
American president Barack Obama is facing growing pressure from Russia's president Vladimir Putin not to launch military strikes against Syria. At the G20 meeting in St Petersburg, discussions continued over a formal dinner at the Peterhof palace.
The rift over Syria overshadowed discussions on the world economy. Meanwhile the Kremlin has rejected accusations Russia gave chemical weapons assistance to Syria. Sergei Ivanov, Kremlin Chief of Staff, is clearly annoyed: "After I heard the Pentagon Chief said Russia supplied chemical weapons to Syria, then he corrected himself saying it was not chemical weapons, but the means for their development and production. This, I apologise if I lose my temper, is rubbish, sheer rubbish," he said.
In Lithuania, EU Defence Ministers met on Thursday to try to work out a common stance over Syria. Catherine Ashton, the EU Chief of Diplomacy, didn't directly blame President Assad for the chemical attacks of August 4:
"I've not heard anyone say to me that this hasn't been a chemical attack. I've been talking with different countries, some of them may take different view of who the perpetrator was, but nobody is arguing the question," she said. US Secretary John Kerry is due to arrive in Lithuania on Saturday to push for a tougher stance against Assad from his EU counterparts.
