EU Wants US to Wait Until After UN Report to Attack Syria

Offers Tentative Backing for War, But Only After Inspectors Report

Yesterday‘s calls for a diplomatic solution apparently forgotten, the European Union has offered its latest Syria policy after a new meeting of its foreign ministers, which includes tentative support for President Obama’s planned war on Syria.

That support, which would be the first real support President Obama has found outside of Saudi Arabia and its satellites, is conditional on the US waiting to attack until after the United Nations inspectors return with their report on samples taken from the site of the Jobar Incident.

The US vehemently opposed the inspectors being sent to Jobar at all, and has repeatedly ruled out waiting for them to report, with the unstated concern that they would issue a report that contradicts the administration’s narrative and would undermine the case for war.

With Britain out of the war and French President Hollande now promising to wait on the UN in an effort to placate his parliament, President Obama will have a particularly difficult time pushing through his plans to attack sooner, rather than later. This is doubly so because indications are that the House of Representatives will vote against the war.

The UN inspectors have been ordered to speed up their reviews of samples, but experts say it could still take 2-3 additional weeks before a report is ready. President Obama intends to give a speech Tuesday on the war, and says he expects the American public, which currently opposes it by a wide margin, to not only accept but “want” to attack Syria after his speech.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.