Washington, Sept 3 (ANI): Intervention by the United States or international authorities in Syria amid escalation in fighting and civilian deaths in the country is unlikely, American officials have said.
According to the U.S. and other Western officials, even a limited expansion of the minimal U.S. role is unlikely for the next several months and perhaps beyond.
"We could get dragged into this, no question, but we're just not there yet," the Washington Post quoted a senior U.S. official, as saying.
The paper quoted another U.S. official, as saying that no humanitarian organization would enter Syria without guaranteed protection from air attacks.
"That would require taking out Syrian air defenses. This is a very slippery slope," the official added.
According to the paper, the official and others insisted that all possibilities, including military intervention, however, remain on the table.
"There's not a thing that we aren't hotly debating. There's nothing that we haven't turned up and down, looked at and scrubbed. We want to do more. But we're putting that against what would be effective and in our interests," the official said.
According to the paper, the U.S. and other Western officials still predict that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will eventually fall, but they said the 18-month-old uprising appears to be settling into a long war of attrition.
At least 1,600 people have been killed in the past week, the highest death toll for a single week since the uprising began in March 2011, according to UNICEF. (ANI)
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