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He will pursue Russian proposal to have Syria surrender chemical armsWASHINGTON - President Barack Obama delayed a decision on military strikes against Syria, sparing him a political defeat at home and plunging the United States into potentially protracted negotiations with a global rival.迷你倉出租After telling the nation more than a week ago that he would ask Congress to authorise using military force, he reversed course in a nationally televised address on the eve of yesterday's anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks.Mr Obama said he would pursue a proposal by Russia to have Syria surrender to the international authorities its stockpiles of chemical arms that Washington says were used to gas and kill more than 1,400 people last month.By doing so, the US President is casting his lot with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's primary patron. Mr Putin has emerged as Mr Obama's chief foreign antagonist in his second term.But attempts at resolving the Syrian crisis via the diplomatic route ran quickly into problems.Mr Putin demanded that the US pledge not to use military force in the future, but Mr Obama said that demand will not be met."If diplomacy now fails and the United States fails to act, the Assad regime will see no reason to stop using chemical weapons," he said.Over time, he added, the weapons could threaten US troops as well as allies in the region such as Turkey, Jordan and Israel.US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov were scheduled to meet in Geneva today after such disagreements threatened to derail the nascent initiative.Mr Obama's strategy won the迷你倉endorsement of France, the principal US ally in any military venture against Mr Assad. French President Francois Hollande voiced "determination" to work through the United Nations Security Council while "remaining mobilised" to punish Syria for using chemical weapons, according to a statement via e-mail.While stepping back from what looked to be a certain defeat in his bid for congressional support for a strike against Mr Assad's military, Mr Obama did not say how long he would wait. He added that he has ordered the military to remain prepared to carry out attacks if needed.In fact, he spent most of a 16-minute White House address to the nation on Tuesday night making the case for punishing the Syrian regime as a deterrent to further use of chemical weapons - banned by international treaty - and as a warning to other countries that might be tempted to use them."The images from this massacre are sickening," Mr Obama said. "Men, women and children lying in rows, killed by poison gas, others foaming at the mouth, gasping for breath, a father clutching his dead children, imploring them to get up and walk."Addressing criticism over his own promise of limited strikes, Mr Obama said: "Even a limited strike will send a message to Assad that no other nation can deliver."Polls, however, show a majority of Americans want nothing more to do with US military involvement in the Middle East after the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."It's too early to tell whether this offer will succeed, and any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments," Mr Obama said.BLOOMBERG, ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS儲存倉