Posted on 09/14/2013 8:46:35 AM PDT by csvset
In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24 on Friday, US Senator John McCain acknowledged François Hollande’s support on Syria and noted that US inaction had put the French president in an “unfair political position”.
US Senator John McCain has said he was worried US inaction had hurt the Syrian rebels’ campaign against President Bashar al-Assad and had put Washington’s allies, such as French President François Hollande, in an “unfair political position”.
In an interview with FRANCE 24 on Friday, McCain said he feared the recent international focus on chemical weapons had given Assad an advantage in his use of conventional weapons in the battlefield.
“All of us seek a peaceful, non-violent resolution to this conflict. But I must say I’m extremely sceptical that anything really good will come out of this because Bashar Assad has the upper hand,” said McCain. “Also, the United States seems to be more involved in the narrow issue of removal of chemical weapons than in the overall issue that I think we should be addressing – and that is the negotiated departure of Bashar Assad.”
McCain’s comments came as US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, were locked in talks in Geneva to try to reach a Syrian chemical weapons elimination deal.
On Saturday, Kerry and Lavrov said they had reached an agreement on a framework for Syria’s chemical arsenal elimination.
Responding to the announcement, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the deal was “an important step forward”. But Fabius also noted that France would wait until the publication of a UN weapons inspectors’ report on “the massacre of Damascus” before clarifying its position.
On Monday the UN weapons inspection team is set to deliver its findings into the deadly August 21 attack on the western suburbs of Damascus.
‘I appreciate Mr Hollande’s support’
McCain was among the 10 members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee who voted to approve a resolution authorising President Barack Obama to use military force earlier this month.
But Obama postponed a planned US Congressional vote last week following the Russian proposal for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons.
France was a vocal supporter of a military intervention during Obama’s campaign to drum up Congressional support for strikes against Assad’s regime.
In his interview with FRANCE 24, McCain acknowledged France’s willingness to join a potential international mission on Syria. “I appreciate Mr Hollande’s support,” said McCain. “But I also think it may have put him in a kind of unfair political position after he’s come out strongly in support and then there’s this backtracking.”
Pravda denies commissioning a McCain column
McCain’s interview came before a report on US website Foreign Policy that the Arizona senator had agreed to write a column for Russian newspaper Pravda in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s column in The New York Times last week.
But the Russian Communist Party denied it had made any agreement with McCain to publish a column.
"There is only one Pravda in Russia, it is the organ of the Communist Party, and we have heard nothing about the intentions of the Republican senator," the editor of Pravda, Boris Komotsky, wrote in a statement on the party's website on Saturday.
While the US, France and Britain have maintained that Assad used chemical weapons in the chemical attack, Russia claims the rebels were responsible.
Speaking to FRANCE 24, McCain acknowledged that it would be difficult for Washington and Moscow to find common ground on the question of who committed the attack.
“I think it’s impossible to reconcile those two positions,” said McCain. “I have the faint hope that these two positions can be reconciled.”
Despite the recent frantic diplomatic efforts to reach a deal on Syria’s chemical weapons, McCain said his outlook for the future remained bleak.
"I'm afraid that the most likely scenario, by far the most likely scenario, is that we just flounder around,” said McCain. “There's talks - they're inconclusive - various demands are made, and meanwhile Basher Assad intensifies his attacks on the Free Syrian Army.”
McCain can’t get through the day without defending a socialist, can he.
Exclusive???....BWAHAHAHAHA.
McCain is a warmonger.
McCain apology tour.
McCain is a traitor.
If McQaeda suffered a stroke, it would be divine intervention. This POS is a danger to the USA.
Oh No! We have let France down, how will we ever get over it? I know, let’s let them have Syria all to themselves, after all they gave us Vietnam.
All Hollande said, basically, was that he sympathized with Obama’s desire to bomb Syria on behalf of the Muslim terrorists, but sorry, France can’t actually give the U.S. any support at this time.
Big deal.
I wish McCain would shut up! He was a prisoner of war in Viet Nam. So, for that, we have to listen to his stupid rantings?
McQaeda McQuisling McCain - the little runt really is a traitor. His record of deceit and repeated acts of treason against MIA’s long ago destroyed any respect or honor due him as a result of his time as a POW. The fact that, apparently for the first time ever, the little weasel has floated the possibility he may retire, strongly suggests that someone has just dropped his full dossier on his desk.
As long as McCain keeps his head up Obama’s nether regions he will have a crappy outlook on everything.
That card was played out long, long ago.
Of boo hoo, boo hoo, I’m really crying for poor Hollande!!!!! (not).
Dear France, please allow me to extend a deeply sincere apology, on behalf of all good and true citizens of the United States of America, for inflicting senile, semi-sane McCain on the French people. The only possible excuse he could have for his mindless rambling is that he may have been drugged into stupefaction by drinking too much of Obama’s Bomb-Syria-(but just a tiny bit)-flavored Kook-Aid.
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