Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said that his country is capable
of confronting any external attack, a day after his US counterpart
Barack Obama called for military action against him.
"Syria ... is capable of confronting any external aggression," state
television quoted Assad as saying on Sunday at a meeting with Iranian
officials.
"The American threats of launching an attack against Syria will not
discourage Syria away from its principles ... or its fight against
terrorism supported by some regional and Western countries, first and
foremost the United States of America."
Syria generally refers to rebels fighting to topple Assad as "terrorists".
The comments came as John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, said his
government had obtained evidence that sarin gas was used in an attack in
Syria last month that the US claims killed 1,400 people.
Hair and blood samples provided to the US from first responders on
the scene of last month's attack in Damascus "have tested positive for
signatures of sarin," Kerry told NBC and CNN television on Sunday.
Kerry said the "case is building'' for a military attack against the
regime of Assad. However, the evidence has yet to be presented to the
public.
The Assad regime is known to have stockpiles of sarin, a deadly nerve
agent, although the regime has claimed that rebels have used the
substance in attacks.
The statements come a day after Obama stepped back from his threat to
launch an attack unilaterally, instead saying he would consult the US
Congress before any such action.
Obama said on Saturday that the US had presented a "
powerful case" linking the Assad regime to the attack in Ghouta on August 21, and that the US military was prepared to launch a "
limited" strike.
Congress is due back from its summer recess on September 9.
A French government source meanwhile told the AFP news agency that
officials would soon declassify secret defence documents detailing
Syria's chemical arsenal.
The comment came after the French
Journal du Dimanche
newspaper said Syria had 1,000 tonnes of chemicals including sarin and
mustard gas, and was developing a powerful agent that was far more toxic
than sarin.
"The citations from the notes are correct," the source said. "The
government plans to make public the declassified documents on the Syrian
chemical arms programme."
Source: www.aljazeera.com and agencies