Saudi Arabia has said it is time for the world to do everything it could to prevent aggression against the Syrian people, and that it would back a US strike on Syria if the Syrian people did.<\/p>\n
Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal made his comments on Sunday as the United States awaits a final decision on strikes against the Syrian government for an alleged chemical gas attack that killed hundreds of civilians.<\/p>\n
“We call upon the international community with all its power to stop this aggression against the Syrian people,” Faisal said in Cairo, where he was attending a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers to discuss Syria.<\/p>\n
On the prospect of a US strike, he said: “We stand by the will of the Syrian people. They know best their interests, so whatever they accept, we accept, and whatever they refuse, we refuse.”<\/p>\n
The Arab League meeting was expected formally to blame Assad for the gas attack.<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera’s Nadim Baba, reporting from Cairo, said that Ahmed Aljarba, the head of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC), would give a speech at the meeting of foreign ministers.<\/p>\n
The head of the opposition umbrella group backed by the West and Arab states is expected to ask Arab foreign ministers to back military intervention in Syria.<\/p>\n
The Arab League last week had accused the Syrian government of carrying out the chemical-weapons attacks in a suburb of Damascus on August 21.<\/p>\n
The Arab League suspended Syria’s membership in 2011 after President Bashar al-Assad’s government failed to abide by an Arab peace plan that aimed to end the conflict.<\/p>\n
The 22-member organisation offered in March Syria’s seat to the SNC and decided to let its member nations arm the rebels battling Assad’s government.<\/p>\n
John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, named the regional body on Friday among a list of allies “ready to respond” to the alleged chemical-weapons attack.<\/p>\n
However, some influential Arab League members, including Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Tunisia and Algeria, have expressed opposition to foreign military intervention in Syria.<\/p>\n
Source: Al Jazeera<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Saudi Arabia has said it is time for the world to do everything it could to prevent aggression against the Syrian people, and that it would back a US strike…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n