Assad defiant in face of US strikes threat

Boldfaced Assad says Syria is capable of fighting 'external aggression' as world deliberates response to alleged use of weapons

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad remained defiant Sunday after his US counterpart Barack Obama said he was seeking congressional approval for a military strike, asserting his country was ready for any intervention.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, the lead advocate for a military strike, in the meantime upped the ante, claiming on Sunday Washington has proof sarin gas was used by Assad's regime in a Damascus attack on 21 August.
And in Cairo, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal urged Arab countries to back calls by the Syrian opposition for military action against the Damascus regime.
Assad, whose regime has faced an uprising since March 2011 that a watchdog said on Sunday had claimed 110,000 lives, came out fighting on Sunday.
"Syria... is capable of facing up to any external aggression just as it faces up to internal aggression every day, in the form of terrorist groups and those that support them," he said, as cited by state news agency SANA.
Syria continues to "record victory after victory", he added.
Assad's comments were his first since Obama in a huge political gamble, on Saturday committed the fate of US action to lawmakers, lifting the threat of immediate strikes.
In a move which could reshape the balance of power between Capitol Hill and the presidency, Obama said he believed it was important to secure support from Congress to wage war.
This effectively pushed military action back until at least 9 September, when US lawmakers return from their summer recess.
Obama said he had decided an 21 August chemical weapons attack on a Damascus suburb that Washington says killed more than 1,400 people was so heinous that he would respond with a limited US military strike.
As the White House was reaching out to lawmakers, Kerry told NBC and CNN television hair and blood samples given to the United States from emergency workers on the scene of the August 21 showed signs of the powerful sarin nerve gas.
Kerry blitzed the Sunday morning television talk shows to relaunch his bid to build the case for US military strikes in Syria, urging his former colleagues in Congress to give Obama the green-light.
Syria Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad urged US lawmakers to show "wisdom" in their vote, while labelling Obama "hesitant, disappointed and confused".
Muqdad also launched a broadside against France, which supports military action against Damascus, accusing its leaders of being "irresponsible" and trying to dupe their own people.
Syria's opposition for its part expressed disappointment that Obama had put on hold his plans for military action, but said it was confident US lawmakers would green-light a strike.
"We were expecting things to be quicker, that a strike would be imminent... But we believe Congress will approve a strike," said Samir Nashar, a top official of the Syrian National Coalition.
The Coalition in a separate statement called on "members of the US Congress to make the right choice and support the administration's efforts to stop the Assad killing machine."
Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal urged Arab nations to support calls by the opposition for a military strike on Syria, at a news conference in Cairo ahead of a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers.
Arab states, he said, must echo demands by the "legitimate" representatives of the Syrian people for "help from the international community to put an end to the bloodbath" in Syria.
A French government source meanwhile said Paris will soon declassify secret defence documents detailing Syria's arsenal of chemical weapons in defiance of international conventions.
The comment came after the Journal du Dimanche weekly said French intelligence agents had compiled information showing that some of the weapons had been stockpiled for nearly 30 years.
The arsenal included over 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents, the paper said.
Obama has said the US military is poised to react at any time.
"The chairman of the joint chiefs has informed me that we are prepared to strike whenever we choose," Obama warned during an address in the White House Rose Garden on Friday.
"Our capacity to execute this mission is not time-sensitive. It will be effective tomorrow or next week or one month from now."
At least five US warships armed with scores of Tomahawk cruise missiles have converged on the eastern Mediterranean ready to launch precision strikes on Syrian regime targets.
A team of UN inspectors spent four days investigating last week's alleged chemical attacks on suburbs of Damascus.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said that analysis of samples taken at the site would take up to three weeks.
A UN spokesman promised they would give a fair report after conducting these lab tests, but Washington and its allies insist they already know all they need to know.
At the Vatican, Pope Francis called for the world to unite in a day of fasting and prayer for Syria on Saturday and said "God and history" would judge anyone using chemical weapons.
More than 110,000 people have died since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011, according to new figures released on Sunday by the Syrian Observatory for Human rights.
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