The statements confronted American officials with the possibility that Mr. Assad had crossed what President Obama has called a "red line" that could prompt a more assertive American intervention.
JERUSALEM — The Palestinian Authority's foreign minister on Thursday offered an unusually bleak assessment of the negotiations with Israel and said President Mahmoud Abbas would seek more active American intervention when he meets with President Bush in Washington this month.
JERUSALEM — President Obama's position on Syria — punish President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons without seeking to force him from power — has been called "half-pregnant" by critics at home and abroad who prefer a more decisive American intervention to end Syria's civil war.
Adding to those voices was former President Bill Clinton, who earlier this week endorsed a more robust American intervention in Syria to help the rebels, aligning himself with hawks like Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who fault Mr. Obama for his reluctance to get entangled in the war.
Beijing would treat as more provocative American intervention in what even U.S. officials acknowledge to be part of China.
See more American views on intervention in Syria here.
Yes, Egyptians have internal problems with their government and inter-Arab problems with their neighbours, but these problems are made ever more intractable by American intervention.
The recent American intervention — more than a hundred and twenty air strikes since August 8th — has destroyed a few dozen armed pickup trucks, mortar positions, and roadside bombs in the dusty scrubland of northwest Iraq.
Now, he said, with more potential conflicts tempting American intervention, "we as a military class do not want a mission where we're going to be set up for failure".
