STORY SUMMARY

by By Rami G. Khouri
The Daily Star

I was struck a few days ago when I read U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s statement in Riyadh, after talks with the Saudi Arabian leadership, that the U.S. had neither “the legal authority nor desire” to intervene in Syria.

It would be a great step forward for all concerned if the U.S. were to be adopting the position that a credible international legal mandate were needed for it to get involved militarily in a bigger way in Syria.

The second part of Kerry’s statement, about the U.S. not having the desire to intervene militarily in Syria, is equally fascinating, given that the U.S. has intervened militarily in many places in the region and is already involved in providing the anti-Assad rebels with military support of various kinds.

The American position on Syria is peculiar, but not unusual.

The U.S. has gotten itself into a situation where all its key allies in the region – Arabs, Iranians, Turks and Israelis – have major problems and disagreements with it, and are not afraid to spell these out in public in some cases.

Read more: http://dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2013/Nov-06/236881-is-us-policy-in-syria-changing.ashx#ixzz2k2ku2Znz
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)