President Obama is falling for a Syrian “rope-a-dope” that will only drag out the crisis and lead to more bloodshed, Sen. John McCain said yesterday.
McCain, who favors stronger support of Syrian rebels, said he had doubts about the Russian plan to place Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons under international control in exchange for the US agreeing not to strike.
“Put me down as extremely skeptical,” said McCain (R-Ariz.). “I worry we have a kind of a game of rope-a-dope for a while and the slaughter goes on,” he told reporters at a Wall Street Journal breakfast.
His grim forecast came as the UN revealed eight more massacres committed by the Assad regime and one by the rebels since 2012 — not including the chemical attack that killed 1,400.
Assad’s forces also attacked a field hospital Wednesday, killing a doctor and 10 people.
UN rights investigators also said Syrian government forces were almost certainly responsible for two other massacres last May that killed up to 450 civilians — and another seven with undisclosed death tolls.
McCain deplored the lack of US support for the rebels — as well as President Obama’s failure to mention the US-backed Free Syrian Army in his nationally televised speech Tuesday night.
Not one American weapon has reached the FSA while a “planeload of weapons” arrives in Syria from Russia and Iran every day, McCain said. “I think if you were sitting in [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s seat, you would feel pretty good today,” he added.
Details of the Russian plan have not been fully revealed, but White House spokesman Jay Carney said the proposal was “very explicit” and “constructive.”
In sharp contrast to the Putin-bashing of recent months, he said, “Russia to its credit put its prestige on the line” in attempting a diplomatic solution.
Secretary of State John Kerry begins two days of intense talks about the plan Thursday in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Senate leaders said they would delay at least until next week a vote on authorizing President Obama to carry out punitive airstrikes against Syria.
“The whole terrain has changed,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill). “We want to make sure we do nothing that’s going to derail what’s going on.”