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Canada has no Syria intervention plans

30 August 2013 04:16 (UTC +04:00)

“Our government has been a very reluctant convert to the idea that there needs to be some Western military action regarding the Syrian situation,” Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters at an event in Toronto on Thursday.

“At the present time the government of Canada has no plans, we have no plans of our own, to have a Canadian military mission,” he added.

Earlier in the day, a meeting of the UN Security Council's permanent members ended without reaching an agreement to resolve the Syrian crisis.

Representatives from the United States, Britain, France, Russia, and China met afternoon at the UN headquarters in New York for the second time in two days, but the meeting broke up after less than an hour, with the ambassadors steadily walking out.

The previous meeting on Wednesday also abruptly ended with the Security Council deeply divided over a British-proposed draft resolution to authorize military action against Syria.

The Western members of the Security Council have been pushing for a resolution on the use of force while Russia and China are strongly opposed to any attack on Syria.

The war rhetoric against Syria intensified after foreign-backed opposition forces accused President Bashar al-Assad’s government of having launched a chemical attack on militant strongholds in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21.

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said on Wednesday that the West is seeking to turn Syria into a second Iraq and that the issue of chemical weapons use is only a pretext for war.

During a news conference on Tuesday in Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem challenged the US and its allies to present evidence that the government had used chemical weapons.

"We are hearing war drums around us. If they want to launch an attack against Syria, I think using the excuse of chemical weapons is not true at all. I challenge them to show what proof they have,” Muallem said.

He also stated that any military action against Syria would serve the interests of Israel and al-Qaeda-linked militants fighting against the Syrian government.

"The war effort led by the United States and their allies will serve the interests of Israel and secondly al-Nusra Front," the Syrian foreign minister noted.