Panetta warns against military intervention in Syria

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has warned against military intervention in Syria and stressed the US would continue its diplomatic and economic pressure on the regime. ” As Secretary (of State Hillary Rodham) Clinton has noted, We must also be mindful of the possibility that outside military intervention will make a volatile situation even worse and place even more innocent civilians at risk,” he told a hearing in Congress. He said the Defence Department was reviewing its plans for a variety of scenarios, as is common procedure, but that the focus remained on pressuring President Baschar al-Assad in other ways. The US is supplying the Syrian opposition with communications equipment and medicine, including 25 million dollars in humanitarian aid, but has so far warned against providing arms. “Our only clear path is to keep moving diplomatically with the international community in a resolute and deliberate manner to find a way to return Syria to the Syrian people,” he said. “If we remain dedicated to that effort, I think we ultimately can prevail.” The situation in Syria cannot be solved by unilateral action by the United States or any other nation, but must be dealt with in a coordinated international effort, Panetta said. “There is no silver bullet; I wish there was but there isn’t,” he said. Earlier today, Panetta said that US military Planners are working on possible new strategies to protect the Syrian people from the brutality of the Assad’s regime, pointing to the possibility of adopting a model similar to the NATO intervention in Libya. ”The Christian Science Monitor”, on its website, quoted Panetta during a meeting with senior military commanders Thursday as saying, “the Pentagon is reviewing and planning for a range of additional measures that may be necessary to protect the Syrian people”, adding that the violence in Syria has been brutal and devastating, putting the Syrian people in a desperate situation. He noted that the United States, for now, continues to provide civilian aid to the Syrian opposition, including the means of communication and medical supplies as well as humanitarian relief, to the tune of USD 25 million, stressing that despite the fact that these measures increase the impact of pressure on the Assad regime, more may needs to be done.