The United States is pushing the United Nations to “prompt better action” on Syria and has called on the Syrian government to allow inspection of the alleged use of chemical weapons last week, President Barack Obama has said.
“We are already in communication with the entire international community,” Mr Obama said in an interview with CNN. “We don’t expect cooperation (from Damascus) given past history.”
Mr Obama refuted the notion that the United States “can somehow solve” the complex sectarian situation in Syria, calling it “overstated.” He added that the United States was still involved in a war in Afghanistan and that there are human costs to US military involvement which he sees every time he visits wounded soldiers.
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The Russian Foreign Ministry also called for an independent probe by United Nations experts into what Syrian rebels alleged was a chemical weapons attack by government forces on the outskirts of Damascus.
The statement released on Friday said that Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had discussed the situation by telephone on Thursday, and concluded that they had a “mutual interest” in calling for the U.N. investigation.
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The statement said Russia had called for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s embattled government to cooperate with an investigation, but questions remained about the willingness of the opposition, “which must secure safe access of the mission to the location of the incident.”
Russia has been one of Assad’s key allies in the international arena.