The debate over possible military strikes for Syria’s apparent use of chemical weapons is already overshadowing the G-20 conference this week.<\/p>\n
The meeting in Russia will pit two leaders with polar opposite views on Syria — U. S. President Barack Obama,<\/b> who wants to launch limited military strikes against the Syrian regime, and Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/b>, whose country stands by its longtime ally in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The views of the 18 other countries at the G-20 run the gamut — but could be influenced by whatever happens in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n
Calls for intervention in Syria intensified after an alleged chemical weapons attack in rebel strongholds last month left about 1,400 people dead, according to U. S. estimates. Pres. Obama<\/b> has been at the forefront of calls for a military response, along with French President Francois Hollande.<\/b><\/p>\n
But some world leaders took the summit spotlight to stump against military action.<\/p>\n
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy<\/b> said that while the international community “cannot remain idle” in the face of Syria’s apparent chemical weapons use, “there is no military solution to the Syrian conflict.”<\/p>\n
“Only a political solution can end the terrible bloodshed, grave violations of human rights and the far-reaching destruction of Syria” he said. “Too many lives have already been lost and too many people have suffered for too long and lost too much.”<\/p>\n
Pope Francis<\/b> also spoke out, sending a letter Thursday to Putin in his role as host of the G-20 summit, urging a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis and calling military intervention a “futile pursuit.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0Pictured: <\/b>President Obama shakes\u00a0 hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/b><\/p>\n Senate Committee Authorizes Limited Military Response In Syria<\/b><\/p>\n The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday voted to give President Barack Obama<\/b> the power to a launch a military attack to punish Syria for using chemical weapons.<\/p>\n The vote was 10-7. It marked the first time in more than a decade \u2014 since a 2002 resolution that preceded the Iraq war \u2014 that members of Congress have voted to authorize military action.<\/p>\n The resolution, which could be voted on by the full Senate as early as next week, forbids Pres. Obama<\/b> from using ground troops in Syria and allows the military response to last no longer than three months.<\/p>\n The debate over possible military strikes for Syria’s apparent use of chemical weapons is already overshadowing the G-20 conference this week. The meeting in Russia will pit two leaders with polar opposite views on Syria — U. S. President Barack Obama, who wants to launch limited military strikes against the Syrian regime, and Russian President […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}