While stressing that he has not yet decided on launching a military strike against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, US President Barack Obama said on Aug. 28, “[W]e do have to make sure that when countries break international norms on chemical weapons they are held accountable.” In the meantime, the British government argued that the legal reasoning for a strike on Syria “is justified on humanitarian grounds,” shoveling aside all questions concerning the legality of such an operation in the absence of a UN Security Council resolution.
Whether the strike is inevitable or not, the White House said on Tuesday, Aug. 27, that the mission of such an operation won’t be about ousting Assad.