Obama seeks Syria options as oil minister joins rebels

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WASHINGTON: The top two officials at the Pentagon said that the US President, Barack Obama, had asked for preliminary military options to respond to the increasingly violent Syria conflict, but they emphasised the risks and said that the administration still believed diplomatic and economic pressure was the best way to protect Syrians from the Assad government's repression.

Pressure continued to mount on the Syria President, Basha al-Assad, with the first high-profile defection from the regime being announced from Lebanon. The Deputy Oil Minister, Abdo Hussameddin, announced his resignation in a video posted by activists on YouTube and said he was joining the revolt.

''I, the engineer Abdo Hussameddin … announce my defection from the regime and my resignation,'' he said in the video. ''I am joining the revolution of the people who reject injustice and the brutal campaign of the regime, which is seeking to crush the people's demand for freedom and dignity.''

In Washington, the military appraisal by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, and the Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta, in Senate testimony, reflected increased concern about the uprising in Syria, in which more than 7500 people have been killed, according to United Nations estimates.

Their comments also reflected the politicisation of the Syria conflict in the US during a presidential election year. Mr Obama, who ended the war in Iraq and is moving to do the same in Afghanistan, has expressed reluctance to enter a new military conflict and characterised statements by his Republican adversaries as hawkish.

General Dempsey and Mr Panetta spoke two days after the Republican senator John McCain, who lost to Mr Obama in 2008, became the first senator to call for US air strikes on Syria as ''the only realistic way'' to stop what he called a slaughter there.

Both General Dempsey and Mr Panetta faced sharp questions during their testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee from Mr McCain, who is the panel's ranking Republican.

General Dempsey told senators that the options under review included humanitarian airlifts, naval monitoring, aerial surveillance of the Syrian military and the establishment of a no-fly zone.

Mr Panetta told the committee that military review was in the earliest stages. ''We have not done the detailed planning because we are waiting for the direction of the President to do that,'' he said.

Meanwhile, Russia has accused the new Libya government of supporting a training centre for Syrian rebels, provoking a sharp response from the US and Libya's Prime Minister.

The sparring was another indication of how deeply divided the international community remains over the turmoil in the Middle East, particularly the bloody uprising in Syria.

Russia and China have accused NATO of overstepping its Security Council mandate to protect civilians in Libya during the uprising last year. They strongly opposed any similar action in Syria.

Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said his country had received information that ''a special training centre for Syrian revolutionaries'' had been established in Libya with support from the government. He also expressed concern about ''the uncontrolled proliferation of Libyan arms in the region'' and said training fighters to attack Syria's government undermined Middle East stability.