AMMAN/BEIRUT: Syrian rebels fighting against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime have been told to expect military action within days by Western powers and to get ready to negotiate a peace.
“The opposition was told in clear terms that action to deter further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime could come as early as in the next few days, and that they should still prepare for peace talks at Geneva,” one of the sources who attended a meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday between Syrian opposition leaders and diplomats from Washington and other governments told.
UN chemical weapons investigators, who finally crossed the frontline to take samples on Monday, put off a second trip to rebel-held suburbs of Damascus.
But Washington said it already held Assad responsible for a “moral obscenity” and President Barack Obama would hold him to account for it.
Meanwhile, in an interview on Tuesday with BBC during a visit to the Southeast Asian nation of Brunei, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that US forces are now ready to act on any order by President Obama to strike Syria.
The US Navy has four destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea within range of targets inside Syria. The US also has warplanes in the region.
Hagel also predicted that US intelligence agencies would soon conclude that last week’s deadly attack on civilians in a Damascus suburb was a chemical attack by the government.
