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Bombings Hit Syria as Obama Urges Caution on U.S. Role U.S. Considers Expanding Support for Syrian Rebels by Supplying Guns
(about 3 hours later)
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Deadly bombings hit the center of the Syrian capital, Damascus, and a major Syria border crossing into Turkey on Tuesday as President Obama strongly suggested that he would not be rushed into military entanglements in the Syria conflict over incomplete reports of chemical weapons use. WASHINGTON — The White House is now considering supplying weapons to Syria’s armed opposition, senior officials said Tuesday. Such a decision would be a policy shift for the Obama administration, which has stepped up its nonlethal aid but stopped short of lethal weaponry and has expressed reluctance about greater military entanglements in the Syrian civil war.
The blasts in Syria, which killed at least 13 people in Damascus and at least five at the Bab al-Hawa crossing in northern Syria, came a day after an attempted assassination of Syria’s prime minister in central Damascus from a bomb aimed at his motorcade. The prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, survived the attack but at least five others including a bodyguard were killed, Syria’s state news media reported. President Obama has not decided whether to provide arms, these officials said, and it is still unclear what kinds of weapons the United States would supply to the insurgency.
In a news conference in Washington, Mr. Obama said that despite an American intelligence assessment last week that there was evidence that chemical weapons had been used in Syria, the evidence had not yet surpassed his “red line” for a change of American strategy regarding the conflict, in which President Bashar al-Assad is fighting an increasingly violent insurgency. In a statement on Tuesday evening, the spokeswoman for the National Security Council, Caitlin M. Hayden, said, “Our assistance to the Syrian opposition has been on an upward trajectory.” The president, she said, “has directed his national security team to identify additional measures so that we can continue to increase our assistance.”
Mr. Obama said his previously stated position that the proven use of chemical munitions in Syria would be a “game changer” was not the position of the United States alone, and said there were still serious shortcomings in the intelligence. Such a move would bring the United States in line with Persian Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which are funneling arms to the rebels, and with Britain and France, which favor the lifting of a European Union arms embargo to Syria to assist the insurgents seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
The possible shift, first reported by The Washington Post, came days after the United States disclosed its preliminary intelligence assessment that chemical munitions, which Mr. Assad’s military has been known to stockpile, had been used on a small scale in Syria. Mr. Obama, who has said the use of these weapons would be a “game changer,” has also said that before responding, he needs more conclusive proof that Mr. Assad had deployed these weapons — a point he re emphasized at a wide-ranging news conference in Washington earlier Tuesday.
“What we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria, but we don’t know how they were used, when they were used, who used them; we don’t have chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened,” Mr. Obama said. “And when I am making decisions about America’s national security and the potential for taking additional action in response to chemical weapon use, I’ve got to make sure I’ve got the facts.”“What we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria, but we don’t know how they were used, when they were used, who used them; we don’t have chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened,” Mr. Obama said. “And when I am making decisions about America’s national security and the potential for taking additional action in response to chemical weapon use, I’ve got to make sure I’ve got the facts.”
Mr. Obama also said that “if we end up rushing to judgment without hard, effective evidence, then we can find ourselves in the position where we can’t mobilize the international community to support what we do.”Mr. Obama also said that “if we end up rushing to judgment without hard, effective evidence, then we can find ourselves in the position where we can’t mobilize the international community to support what we do.”
If investigations prove that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons in the conflict, Mr. Obama said, “we would have to rethink the range of options that are available to us.” But even without conclusive proof of chemical weapons use, officials said, the Pentagon has prepared a menu of options for Mr. Obama that range from airstrikes and commando raids to the enforcement of a no-fly zone over Syria. Officials said the administration is also looking for ways to increase its aid to the rebels.
The United States is the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to civilians of the two-year-old Syrian conflict and has called on Mr. Assad to resign in a negotiated political transition. The Obama administration has furnished nonlethal aid to the insurgents but has resisted requests to arm them. Mr. Obama had long resisted calls to arm the rebels, including from David H. Petraeus, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. A proposal by Mr. Petraeus to provide arms to carefully vetted members of the opposition was shelved last fall, though several officials said they expected it to be revisited.
Mr. Obama’s remarks on Tuesday came against a backdrop of increasing pressure on the administration to be more precise about what would constitute the basis for an American intervention in Syria if chemical munitions were used. The White House had stressed that providing weapons would “further militarize the conflict,” and that those weapons could fall into the hands of radical groups. Officials spoke about American shoulder-fired missiles being used against civilian aircraft.
While some members of Congress have said the threshold for more active American involvement had been crossed, the administration has resisted. There also appears to be little American public appetite for a military engagement in Syria, according to a new New York Times/CBS News poll. But as the administration has gotten to know members of the Syrian opposition, particularly its military council, a senior official said, it has become more confident of its ability to direct weapons to responsible groups.
The United Nations has authorized a 15-member panel of experts to travel to Syria to investigate the suspected chemical munitions use. Their trip has been stalled over a dispute with the Syrian government, which wants to limit the scope of their inquiry. The developments in Washington came as a new wave of insurgency-related violence hit central Damascus and a northern Syria border crossing into Turkey on Tuesday and as new frictions rose at the United Nations regarding efforts to investigate instances of possible chemical weapons use in the conflict.
At the United Nations on Tuesday, the Syrian ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, told a news conference that his government had been “cooperating intensively” on an investigation that would examine whether chemical weapons had been used in Khan al-Asal, near the northern city of Aleppo, on March 19. .
But he said that the United Nations had failed to provide sufficient evidence on suspected use in Homs and outside Damascus for the Syrian government to judge whether an inquiry into those incidents was merited. Britain and France have asserted that such evidence exists. The United Nations has authorized a 15-member panel of experts to travel to Syria to investigate the suspected use of chemical munitions. The trip has been stalled over a dispute with the Syrian government, which wants to limit the scope of the experts’ inquiry.
The Syrian government has contended that rebels used a form of chlorine gas from a factory they had captured in Khan al-Asal, while the Syrian government is accused by its enemies of using sarin gas, a nerve agent known to have been stockpiled by Mr. Assad’s military. The Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, told a news conference that his government had been “cooperating intensively” on an investigation that would examine whether chemical weapons had been used in Khan al-Asal, near the northern city of Aleppo, on March 19.
Allegations from Britain and France cannot be taken at face value because they support the rebels, Mr. Jaafari said, going on at length to accuse Britain of being the first to use mustard gas in the region while trying to subdue anticolonial tribes in Iraq in the early 20th century. He also referred to the “ugly file” of Iraq which was invaded despite the conclusion by United Nations inspectors that Iraq had not stockpiled chemical munitions and other weapons of mass destruction. But he said that the United Nations had failed to provide sufficient evidence on suspected use in Homs and outside Damascus for the Syrian government to judge whether an inquiry into those episodes was merited. Britain and France have asserted that such evidence exists.
Asked for comment, Iona Thomas, a spokeswoman for the British mission to the United Nations, responded via email that Britain had “always been clear that all allegations should be investigated” regarding the suspected use of chemical weapons in Syria. The Syrian government has contended that rebels used a form of chlorine gas from a factory they had captured in Khan al-Asal, while the Syrian government is accused by its enemies of using sarin gas, a nerve agent. known to have been stockpiled by Mr. Assad’s military.
Martin Nesirky, the spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said requests to investigate had come from Syria, Britain and France and they would be done in the order received. Martin Nesirky, the spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations, said that requests to investigate had come from Syria, Britain and France and that they would be done in the order received.
“There cannot be a partial investigation,” Mr. Nesirky said, adding that the United Nations investigators “need to be able to enter without conditions and without exceptions.”“There cannot be a partial investigation,” Mr. Nesirky said, adding that the United Nations investigators “need to be able to enter without conditions and without exceptions.”
Mr. Jafaari said Syria had sought to rid the Middle East region of weapons of mass destruction and would not use chemical weapons against its own people. Such promises have been met with increasing skepticism given that the death toll has exceeded 70,000 since the once peaceful anti-government uprising first started in March 2011. Mr. Jaafari said Syria had sought to rid the Middle East region of weapons of mass destruction and would not use chemical weapons against its own people. Such promises have been met with increasing skepticism given that the death toll has exceeded 70,000 since the once peaceful anti-government uprising first started in March 2011.
The news conference came amid new allegations and counter-allegations about the suspected use of chemical weapons in the northwestern town of Saraqib, near Idlib, on Monday. Mr. Jaafari said rebels had spread white powder from plastic bags, “most probably” chemical materials. Many people were affected and the victims “manifested signs similar to those during the use of chemical weapons,” the ambassador said. The news conference came amid new allegations and counter-allegations about the suspected use of chemical weapons in the northwestern town of Saraqib, near Idlib, on Monday. Mr. Jaafari said rebels had spread white powder from plastic bags, “most probably” chemical materials. Opposition groups said military aircraft had dropped balloons containing an unspecified chemical on Saraqib, a city in northwestern Syria, causing severe respiratory problems for at least 10 people in the town.
Opposition groups said military aircraft had dropped balloons containing an unspecified chemical on Saraqib, causing severe respiratory problems for at least 10 people in the town. The violence in Syria on Tuesday at first centered around a booby-trapped car in Damascus that activist groups said had exploded near the former headquarters of the Interior Ministry, leaving at least 13 people dead. State television said the dead were all civilians.
The violence in Syria on Tuesday at first centered around a booby-trapped car in Damascus that activist groups said had exploded near the former headquarters of the Interior Ministry. State television said the dead were all civilians.
Later at the Bab al-Hawa crossing into Turkey, which is controlled by Syrian insurgents, anti-Assad activists and residents on the Turkish side said Syrian warplanes bombed refugee encampments on the Syrian side.Later at the Bab al-Hawa crossing into Turkey, which is controlled by Syrian insurgents, anti-Assad activists and residents on the Turkish side said Syrian warplanes bombed refugee encampments on the Syrian side.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group with a reporting network in Syria, uploaded video on the Internet to corroborate the assertion, showing the aftermath of an explosion. In the Turkish town of Reyhanli, near the crossing, residents said they believed at least five people on the Syrian side had been killed and a flock of sheep destroyed. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group with a reporting network in Syria, uploaded video on the Internet to corroborate the assertion, showing the aftermath of an explosion. In the Turkish town of Reyhanli, near the crossing, residents said they believed at least five people on the Syrian side had been killed and that a flock of sheep destroyed.
In Beirut, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite militant organization that backs Mr. Assad in the conflict, emphatically reasserted that support in an emotional televised speech, in which he warned Syrians that foreign supporters of the insurgency want to reduce Syria to a “hungry, frail, war-torn country with no control over its oil, borders, sea.”

Mark Landler reported from Washington, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Hania Mourtada and Anne Barnard from Beirut, Lebanon, Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations and Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul.

Leaders of the Syrian insurgency, drawn mostly from the country’s Sunni majority, have severely criticized Mr. Nasrallah, accusing him of backing a bloodthirsty government obsessed with preserving the dominance of Mr. Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, at all costs.

Hania Mourtada reported from Beirut, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Reporting was contributed by Anne Barnard from Beirut, Sebnem Arsu from Istanbul and and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations.