Syrian opposition sees intervention \'in days\'

Syria\'s opposition says it has been consulted over targets in an upcoming military intervention London – Arab Today Syria\'s opposition expects a Western military intervention against President Bashar al-Assad\'s regime within days and has been consulted over targets, one of its officials said Tuesday .
\"There is no precise timing ... but one can speak of an imminent international intervention against the regime. It\'s a question of days and not weeks,\" said Ahmad Ramadan, a Syrian National Coalition political committee member.
\"There have been meetings between the Coalition, the (rebel) Free Syrian Army and allied countries during which possible targets have been discussed,\" the official said.
Ramadan said they included airports, military bases and arms depots.
The targets cover \"airports used by planes equipped with missiles and explosive barrels, command centres used by regime officers, (Iranian) Revolutionary Guards and by (Lebanese Shiite militant group) Hezbollah,\" he said.
Ramadan also said bases used to fire missiles and Scuds, especially the army\'s Brigade 155 near Damascus, were targets for Western punitive strikes following alleged chemical weapons attacks by the regime near Damascus last week.
The Syrian oppostion’s comments came as President Francois Hollande said France was \"ready to punish\" those behind last week\'s alleged deadly chemical attack in Syria, adding that the conflict threatens \"world peace\".
\"France is ready to punish those who took the vile decision to gas innocent people,\" he said in a televised speech, pointing the finger of blame at Assad\'s regime.
Hollande also said France would increase military support to Syria\'s main opposition body.
\"I have decided to increase our military support to the Syrian National Coalition,\" he said in the speech.
Meanwhile Assad’s ally Russia warned a military intervention in Syria could have \"catastrophic consequences\" for the region and called on the international community to show \"prudence\" over the crisis.
\"Attempts to bypass the Security Council, once again to create artificial groundless excuses for a military intervention in the region are fraught with new suffering in Syria and catastrophic consequences for other countries of the Middle East and North Africa,\" a foreign ministry spokesman said.
\"We are calling on our American partners and all members of the world community to demonstrate prudence (and) strict observance of international law, especially the fundamental principles of the UN Charter,\" ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is known for his sharp tongue, said on Twitter that \"the West behaves towards the Islamic world like a monkey with a grenade.\"
Earlier Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said that Moscow regretted Monday\'s decision by the US to postpone a meeting on the Syria crisis, as Western powers mulled military action over last week\'s chemical attack in Syria.
The scrapping of the meeting, which was due to take place at The Hague later in the week, is the latest sign of a new peak in tensions between Moscow and the West over the possibility of military strikes against Assad\'s regime.
\"It arouses regret that our partners decided to cancel the bilateral meeting,\" Gatilov said on Twitter.
\"Working out the parameters of a political solution in Syria would have been especially helpful right now, when military action is hanging over this country,\" Gatilov said.
In such a climate, it was especially important to work in concert to try to organise the repeatedly postponed peace conference bringing together the Damascus regime and the rebels, Lukashevich said.
\"However, the United States\' decision to postpone the meeting in The Hague is sending precisely the opposite signal to the opposition, encouraging their intransigence as they await outside intervention,\" he said.
Western countries including the United States are considering their response to an alleged chemical weapons attack by Assad\'s regime on August 21.
Russia has said it believes rebels were behind the incident and has warned any military action without UN approval would violate international law.
On Monday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov condemned the \"hysteria\" over the claimed chemical attack and said the West had yet to come up with proof that Assad\'s regime was behind it.
He also said Russia would not get involved in a military conflict in Syria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told British Prime Minister David Cameron in a telephone call on Monday there was no evidence yet that the Syrian regime had used chemical weapons against rebels, Cameron\'s office said.
Pro-Kremlin Russian newspaper Izvestia on Monday published an interview with Assad who ridiculed as \"nonsense\" the idea his regime used chemical weapons and warned the United States of failure if it attacked Syria.
Russian officials are now comparing the possible use of force against Syria to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, which was vehemently opposed by Moscow as based on flawed intelligence that Saddam Hussein\'s regime possessed weapons of mass destruction.
\"Deja-vu,\" Alexei Pushkov, the head of the Russian parliament\'s foreign affairs committee wrote on Twitter.
\"It feels like in the White House it\'s still (George W.) Bush, (Dick) Cheney and (Donald) Rumsfeld and in Downing Street Tony Blair,\" he said, referring to the former US president, vice president, defence secretary and British premier during the Iraq war.
The Interfax news agency quoted a diplomatic source who derided US Secretary of State John Kerry\'s most recent statement on Syria as full of \"pomp.\"
Kerry called the use of chemical weapons \"a moral obscenity.\"
A military-diplomatic source told the news agency the possible use of force would not lead to an \"easy victory\" because Syria had enough air defence systems to rebuff attacks.

Source: AFP