TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The G20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, scheduled to be held from September 5 to 6, set to discuss global economic issues, has been overshadowed with arguements over Syria.
World leaders from G20 countries are currently having debates over possible US military strikes against Syria.
Ben Rhodes, a senior Obama national security aide, said that the US would use the summit in St Petersburg to "explain our current thinking" to allies and partners, and explore what type of "political and diplomatic support they may express for our efforts to hold Syrian regime accountable."
The United Nations announced on Thursday, September 5, that it will deploy its special envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi from the Arab League, to push for peace talks regarding this issue.
"The only solution is to go to the negotiating table for a political solution," said Khawla Mattar, spokeswoman for the UN's special envoy to Syria.
A United States Senate panel has agreed to give US President Barrack Obama an approval to launch a strike against Syria with votes coming in ten to seven last Wednesday, September 4, following an alleged chemical weapons attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
The resolution paved the way for Obama to launch strikes for a 60 days period, with a 30 day extension if deemed necessary, without having any US military forces deployed to Syria. However, the resolution must be approved by the United States Congress through a meet scheduled to be held on September 9.
The US has already lost the United Kingdom's support after British Prime Minister David Cameron's proposal was rejected by British parliament last Wednesday. Obama, however, may be backed by France. Unlike Cameron, French President Francois Hollande does not need to wait for approval from its congress to launch an attack.
On the other hand, Iran has declared that the country will provide full support for Syria and said that the US will "suffer" if it decided to carry out its plan and attack Syria. The chief of Iran's elite Quds Force unit Qassem Soleimani, said that Tehran would back Syria "until the end."
Many fear that the US's military strike against Syria will escalate violence in the nation. Syria has been in turmoil due to a civil war that has been going on for over two years killing around 100,000 people and displaced over two million Syrians from the country.
CNN | AL JAZEERA | ABDUL MANAN
