British military drawing up Syria contingency plans

British Prime Minister David Cameron leaves 10 Downing Street in central London Britain's armed forces are drawing up contingency plans for military action in Syria, Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman said Tuesday, but no decision had been made about what response may be taken. Cameron will decide later on Tuesday whether to recall lawmakers from their summer break to debate a possible military intervention in the wake of an alleged chemical weapons attack near Damascus last Wednesday, Downing Street said.
"We are continuing to discuss with our international partners what the right response should be, but, as part of this, we are making contingency plans for the armed forces," Cameron's spokesman said.
The prime minister will continue talks with other world leaders to agree a "proportionate response" to the gas attack, which the United States, Britain and France say was committed by Syrian government forces.
"This is about deterring the use of chemical weapons," the British spokesman said.
Meanwhile, Washington warned Syria it would face action over the "moral obscenity" of the chemical weapons attack, but Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned that the US will face a "Vietnam-like scenario" if it chooses to intervene militarily in the country's 29-month-old conflict.
“Failure awaits the United States as in all previous wars it has unleashed, starting with Vietnam and up to the present day,” Reuters quoted Assad as saying in an interview published by Russian newspaper Izvestia on Monday.
While denying Syrian forces used chemical weapons in Ghouta, where opposition claims over 1000 people were killed, he said the US will be defeated if it intervenes.
“Would any state use chemicals or any other weapons of mass destruction in a place where its own forces are concentrated? That would go against elementary logic,” he said.
Assad’s comments were echoed by Russia, which warned on Tuesday that any military strike against Syria would have catastrophic consequences, and called on the US to show “prudence” and follow international law, Agence France Presse reported.
President Vladimir Putin of Russia - a staunch Assad ally that provides the regime with diplomatic cover by blocking UN Security Council action - on Monday told British Prime Minister David Cameron there was no proof Damascus had used chemical weapons, according to Cameron's office.
Cameron cut short his holiday on Monday to return to London to plan a response. Britain, along with France, has been in the forefront of demands for tougher action against Assad's regime.
The US cancelled a meeting with Russia on the Syrian conflict that had been scheduled for this week in The Hague, the State Department said.



Speaking amid reports that Washington and its allies are preparing to launch a punitive cruise missile strike on Syrian targets, US Secretary of State John Kerry accused President Bashar al-Assad's regime of engaging in a cover-up.
"Let me be clear. The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity," Kerry declared in a televised statement.
"By any standard it is inexcusable, and despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured, it is undeniable."
Kerry said Washington would provide more evidence of who was behind the attack, and that Obama was determined the guilty would face consequences.
"We have additional information about this attack, and that information is being compiled and reviewed together with our partners, and we will provide that information in the days ahead," he warned.
"Make no mistake. President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world's most heinous weapons against the world's most vulnerable people. Nothing today is more serious."



Kerry was speaking as UN inspectors met survivors of last week's attack, which the independent medical agency Doctors Without Borders has said left at least 355 people dead from "neurotoxic symptoms".
The UN convoy came under sniper fire as it tried to approach the Damascus suburb where the attack was reported, but the team nevertheless managed to visit victims receiving treatment in two nearby hospitals.
"It was a very productive day," UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters, adding that the team, led by Swedish expert Ake Sellstrom, is "already gathering valuable evidence".
UN leader Ban Ki-moon said that despite the "very dangerous circumstances" the investigators "visited two hospitals, they interviewed witnesses, survivors and doctors. They also collected some samples".
The UN team was in a buffer zone between government and opposition-held areas when it came under attack.
Ban said the United Nations had made a "strong complaint" to the Syrian government and opposition forces. The rebels and Assad's government traded blame for the sniper assault just as they did the chemical attack.
Additional source: AFP