ITALY: McCain calls for intervention to stop massacre in Syria

Record ID: 281329

  • Title: ITALY: McCain calls for intervention to stop massacre in Syria
  • Date: 9th September 2012
  • Summary: CERNOBBIO, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 8, 2012) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) U.S. SENATOR JOHN McCAIN SAYING: "To the shame of Europe and the United States, to the shame of people all over the world that are sitting by and watching this massacre take place, we need American leadership. The President of the United States hasn't even spoken up on behalf of these people. The only st
  • Embargoed: 24th September 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAEW5U19JCMN6Y0GIMD8TAW46UK
  • Story Text: At a gathering of political and business leaders in Italy on Saturday (September 8), U.S. Senator John McCain said that there was no intervention in Syria because the Americans were war-weary and the Europeans too absorbed with their economic problems.
    Speaking on the fringes of the annual Ambrosetti Forum at Lake Como McCain said:
    "To the shame of Europe and the United States, to the shame of people all over the world that are sitting by and watching this massacre take place, we need American leadership. The President of the United States hasn't even spoken up on behalf of these people."
    He added that the opposition should be supplied with weapons and a safe zone should be designated.
    "But it requires weapons to the people who are fighting the resistance and a safe zone such as the French president said we should consider. I am confident that Mitt Romney would supply weapons to the opposition, particularly anti-tank weapons and I hope that he would also come out for this safe zone, in all candour he has not yet," said McCain.
    When asked why he thought there had been no intervention as yet, McCain replied:
    "I think the Americans are war-weary because of Iraq and Afghanistan. I think it requires Presidential leadership which is absolutely missing and it requires Europeans frankly, who I know are absorbed with jobs and the economy the way that the United States is. But we've got to do the right thing and we're not doing it to our everlasting shame."
    The Ambrosetti forum hosts heads of state, top representatives of European institutions, cabinet ministers, Nobel laureates, businessmen, managers and experts from around the world to discuss current issues of great importance for the world economy and society as a whole.
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