US ‘ready’ to strike Syria, oil price worry for India

Wednesday, 28/08/2013

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WASHINGTON/ DAMASCUS: The US defence chief said Tuesday his forces were ready to launch strikes against the Syrian regime over alleged chemical attacks, amid growing Western and Arab calls for action.

Global stock markets dived and world oil prices hit a sixmonth high over fears of possible military intervention, as the drumbeat of war grew louder.

With oil prices rising, the crisis couldn’t have come at a worse time for India. The rupee is in freefall, markets are tanking and economy is virtually at a standstill.

High oil prices will further widen the current account deficit that the government is struggling to control.

“We are prepared. We have moved assets in place to be able to fulfil and comply with whatever option the president (Obama) wishes to take,” US defence secretary Chuck Hagel said in Brunei.

Calling the use of chemical weapons a “moral obscenity”, secretary of state John Kerry said, “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”.

Though he did not spell out the consequences, Kerry was making a case for military intervention, according to experts. “The question now is not whether the United States will respond,” said Richard Haas of the Centre for Foreign Relations in a conference call, adding, “but only when.”

There have been reports of the US moving its warships into the region in preparation of a cruise missile strike, which, Haas offered, was one of the possibilities. >> DAMASCUS: A heavy sense of dread pervades Damascus, as Washington and its allies mull military action after alleged chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian regime outside the capital last week reportedly killed hundreds of people.

Jihan is convinced the first US strike on Syria would hit Mazze military airport near her Damascus home, and has already packed her family’s bags, ready to flee the capital.

They’ll hit Mazze, I’m sure; the target makes sense,” the young mother said of the facility, which that President Bashar al-Assad himself uses to travel within Syria.

Traffic in downtown Damascus, already diminished since the outbreak of the 29-month civil war, has thinned conspicuously.

People only venture out for urgent business or to gather supplies. Food sellers in the market have witnessed the same sense of panic.

“Lots of people come to stock up in the morning and after work,” said Mohammed, whose stall sells rice, olive oil and pasta.

But for Michel, a cosmetics shop-owner who lives in the mostly Christian quarter of Tijara, rebel mortar fire on the centre of the capital is far worse than any airstrike by the West could be. Others profess their sometimes apocalyptic views on the fallout from a US strike.

“If they strike, Russia and Iran will help us,” said Abu Ahmad, a baker.

“It’ll be the Third World War and the fire won’t go out.”