US hurries to draw up response to Russia and Isis threats

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/28/us-hurries-russia-isis-threats

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US officials were holding a series of hurried meetings on Thursday to decide how to respond to spiralling security threats from Russia in Ukraine and from the Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq and Syria.

An emergency meeting of the National Security Council was convened in the White House situation room on Thursday afternoon with the aim of determining whether the US and allies should take further military action against Isis.

But State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the meeting was an opportunity for US leaders to formulate the country’s response to what it now describes as a direct Russian military intervention against Ukrainian forces.

Emergency meetings of the United Nations Security Council and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) were also taking place on Thursday, before separate talks planned on Ukraine at next week’s Nato summit in Wales and a UN general assembly meeting chaired by Barack Obama in New York in early September.

But the rapid escalation of Russian attacks in Ukraine has put the White House under mounting pressure to respond sooner.

In a briefing with reporters, Psaki said the US had a “range of tools and sanctions at its disposal” to put pressure on Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and hinted that there was a live debate in the administration about speeding up its response.

“Obviously discussions are ongoing about what additional steps may need to take place,” she said. “I don’t want to make predictions about a decision that not yet been made.”

The two crises puts Obama in the difficult position of trying to rally international support for simultaneous coalitions. Military action in Syria could also require explicit congressional authorisation.

Psaki rejected criticism that America’s reliance on economic sanctions to deter Putin had been an ineffective response, and stressed there were other pressures being levelled against him.

“We have a range of tools at our disposal, including economic sanctions; we have already provided non-lethal assistance and engaged with European partners on the political front, so it is not been one lever we have been pulling. We are engaged on a number of tracks” she said.

“We will not hold back in putting in place punitive measures that will have an impact over the long term.”

She also confirmed earlier Nato reports that the it was now clear that Russian forces were intervening directly against Ukrainian troops.