Syrian official blasts White House as France says it won't strike alone - NBCNews.com (blog)

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad fires back at the Obama administration following the president's announcement that he will seek congressional approval before acting against Bashar al-Assad's regime.

President Barack Obama's surprise move to seek congressional authorization before ordering any military action against the Syrian regime was met with a mixed reception around the world early Sunday, with a key Syrian official disparaging the White House while potential intervention partners offered public but careful endorsements of Obama's decision.

As John Kerry told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the case for punitive strikes against President Bashar Assad's regime was getting "stronger and stronger," a leading Syrian government official early Sunday leveled harsh but inevitable criticism against the Obama administration, which before Saturday's announcement appeared on the brink of launching missiles into areas around Damascus.

"The hesitation and the disappointment is so obvious in the words of President Obama yesterday," Syrian deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad told reporters in Damascus, according to The Associated Press. "The confusion was clear as well."

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Syria's state-run SANA news agency reported Assad said his government is equipped to confront a potential U.S. military strike, but the agency did not quote the leader directly, according to the AP.

Assad's regime alleges the Aug. 21 chemical attacks, which the White House says killed some 1,429 people, were carried out by rebel fighters, but it has not presented proof of that claim. The Obama administration has forcefully charged the Syrian government with a "crime against humanity."

World reacts
More favorable but nonetheless relatively muted reactions to Obama's statement Saturday also came from global allies who may prove to be coalition partners if the Obama administration ultimately decides to launch military strikes against key Syrian regime targets.

Saudi Arabia said Sunday the world must work to stamp out aggression against Syrian civilians and that it would back a U.S. military strike on Syria — if the Syrian people do, too.

"We call upon the international community with all its power to stop this aggression against the Syrian people," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said in Cairo, where he was participating in a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers to discuss the crisis in Syria, according to Reuters.

And yet on the possibility of a U.S. strike, he added: "We stand by the will of the Syrian people. They know their best interests, so whatever they accept, we accept, and whatever they refuse, we refuse."

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Pakistan's adviser for foreign affairs and national security, Sartaj Aziz, told NBC News meanwhile that the South Asian nation "stands on principle for the respect of the integrity and sovereignty of any country, while condemning the use of chemical weapons."

Following several days of sometimes dramatic prevarication among boosters of Western military intervention, a French official Sunday said his country was not prepared to act alone against Assad's regime and called on the international community to consider punitive strikes.

"France cannot go in alone," French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said in a radio interview amid growing pressure on President Francois Hollande to put the prospect of intervention to a vote in the French parliament. "A coalition is necessary."

"We are entering a new phase," he said. "We now have time and with this time, we must put it to good use so that things move."

In a surprising vote on Thursday, Britain's parliament rejected a proposal for military action in Syria.

Although he urged patience, Vallas said Assad needed to be punished for the alleged chemical attacks.

"Chemical massacre by Damascus cannot go unpunished and the determination of the President of the Republic is intact," he said. "To gas a population constitutes a crime against humanity and it would be worse to do nothing."

Plea for peace
Pope Francis appealed for a day of fasting and prayer for peace in violence-plagued Syria and throughout the Middle East on Sept. 7.

In remarks ahead of the traditional Angelus prayer on Sunday, the pope said: "I appeal strongly for peace, an appeal which arises from the deep within me. How much suffering, how much devastation, how much pain has the use of arms carried in its wake in that martyred country, especially among civilians and the unarmed! I think of many children will not see the light of the future!"

Pope Francis then denounced the use of chemical weapons.

"With utmost firmness I condemn the use of chemical weapons: I tell you that those terrible images from recent days are burned into my mind and heart," he said. "There is a judgment of God and of history upon our actions which are inescapable! Never has the use of violence brought peace in its wake. War begets war, violence begets violence."

Wajahat Khan of NBC News, as well as The Associated Press and Reuters, contributed to this report.

President Obama says the nation should and will take action against the Syrian government, but not without congressional approval. Watch his full speech.