Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin square up at G20 as fears grow over Syria

 
Smiles: Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin shake hands

Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin prepared for a showdown over the Middle East today, amid fears that Syria could unleash biological weapons.

The US and Russian leaders were due to come face to face at the St Petersburg G20 summit as tensions rose over US plans to launch military strikes against Bashar Assad’s regime. In claims that echoed the build-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, intelligence officials said Assad was “likely” to possess the ingredients of a biological weapon, including lethal bacteria and viruses.

He is also alleged to have equipment needed to convert them into powders and aerosols to deliver their payload to military or civilian populations, reported the Washington Post.

America has accused the regime of slaughtering 1,400 people, including hundreds of children, in a chemical weapons attack, thought to be sarin, last month. “We are worried about sarin, but Syria also has biological weapons, and compared to those, sarin is nothing,” said a senior Middle Eastern intelligence official.

Officials in Washington continued to sabre rattle, briefing that US bombers could join in an attack on Syria with so-called bunker-busting bombs.

However, Russian president Mr Putin has countered US moves towards military action by ordering a giant missile-carrying warship to the eastern Mediterranean and hinted that he could give a missile shield system to Iran if Syria was attacked.

Tension: Obama is warning of military action

Mr Putin has also warned that an attack on Syria would be an “act of aggression” without UN support.

So far, China has sided with Russia at the UN Security Council to block tougher action against Assad. Beijing also warned today that missile strikes could send oil prices spiralling and damage the global economy.

While David Cameron has warned of the “perils” of failing to act over the chemical weapons attack, he has also firmly ruled out British military action after MPs voted against it last week.

With the UK sidelined from military involvement, Mr Obama is due to hold a bilateral meeting in St Petersburg with French president François Hollande, who is one of the strongest supporters of missile strikes.

Before travelling to St Petersburg, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said: “The position of France is to punish and negotiate.”

Mr Hollande is one of just three leaders scheduled to have private talks with Mr Obama during the summit that starts today. Mr Cameron did not ask the White House for a bilateral meeting, snuffing out any suggestion of a snub to the Prime Minister.

It is possible that the two men, who speak regularly, will snatch a chat on the margins of the meetings.

However, critics will claim the French bilateral talk with Mr Obama is further evidence that Britain is losing clout with the US and that the special relationship is under strain because of the Commons vote. There have been reports of British military chiefs being excluded from some US meetings about Syria, for being deemed “unreliable”.

As Mr Obama seeks congressional backing for military action, he last night won crucial support from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

It passed a resolution saying that a US policy goal would be to “change the momentum on the battlefield” in Syria’s civil war — in which more than 100,000 people have been killed — and speed a negotiated removal of Assad.

However, the committee set a time limit of 90 days and ruled out any use of ground forces in Syria “for the purpose of combat operations”.

The committee vote was the first formal test of congressional sentiment about the launching of strikes on Syria and showed how much Mr Obama’s path to victory takes him across a political tightrope. Mr Obama and his allies will have to balance anxieties of lawmakers, who worry that the US will get too involved in Syria, with the concerns of hawks who fear that isolated attacks won’t accomplish enough.

The measure passed only after the committee added amendments by Republican Senator John McCain designed to set a broader strategy against Syria.

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