Syria: UN Accuses Assad As Obama Backtracks

President Barack Obama has confirmed that a vote on air strikes against Syria is off - for now.

In an address to the nation he said he had asked Congress to postpone any decision on military action so a diplomatic solution could be pursued.

It came ahead of the release of a UN report that confirmed at least eight massacres had been carried out in Syria by President Bashar al Assad's regime and one by rebels over the past year and a half.

The UN commission investigating human rights abuses in Syria described the country as a battlefield where "massacres are perpetrated with impunity," and said it was looking into nine more suspected mass killings since March.

Despite Mr Obama's decision to postpone the Congress vote, he said he remained cautious about Russia's plan for Syria to declare its chemical weapons - saying it was "too early to tell" if an agreement could be reached.

Towns and cities across Syria have been destroyed

He said the images and videos of men, women and children dying in the suspected gas attack by the Assad regime were sickening and demanded a response.

But speaking from the East Room in the White House, he said he had asked Congress to postpone a vote on action in Syria while the possibility of a diplomatic solution is pursued.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al Moallem said the regime was ready to co-operate fully with the Russian proposal to put its chemical weapons under international control, and would stop producing more.

Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Geneva to meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Thursday.

But Mr Obama has ordered the US military to maintain its current posture to keep the pressure on Mr Assad's regime should diplomacy fail.

"It is too early to tell whether this offer will succeed," he said. "And any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments. But this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force."

Poison gas canisters

Mr Obama once again ruled out putting American "boots on the ground", but added that with "modest effort and risks", limited strikes could make Syria safer.

"A targeted strike can make Assad - or any other dictator - think twice about using chemical weapons," he said.

He accepted that many Americans were weary of military action after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr Obama said the limitations he was imposing on the potential strike would ensure against the US sliding down a slippery slope into another prolonged war.

"The purpose of this strike would be to deter Assad from using chemical weapons, to degrade his regime's ability to use them and to make clear to the world that we will not tolerate their use," he explained.

Mr Obama insisted the US was not the "world's policeman", but said when ideals, principles and security are at stake, his country must act.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted by state TV as saying: "We hope that the new US attitude toward Syria would be a serious policy and not a media campaign.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he hoped the US was serious about its stance

"The latest developments, if they can be taken seriously, show that they (US and its allies) have stepped back from the inconsiderate and mistaken actions that they had taken in the past few weeks."

At the United Nations, Britain, France and the US discussed elements of a draft Security Council resolution that would include a timeline for Syria to declare the full extent of its poison gas arsenal and to cede control of it to the UN.

An official close to French president Francois Hollande, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said tense negotiations had begun on a proposed resolution.

They said Russia objected not only to making the resolution militarily enforceable, but also to blaming the Syrian government for the chemical attack on August 21 that sparked the recent crisis.

The official said Russia also refused to agree on a demand that those responsible for the attack be taken before an international criminal court.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously insisted the handover of weapons would only work if the US rejected a use of force against Syria.

Sky Moscow Correspondent Katie Stallard said: "Russia would be quite content for this now to get bogged down at the UN Security Council, because they are keenly aware here that there's a clock ticking down all the while, that President Obama is making his case for military action now.

"As long as the perception remains that there is a peaceful solution available, whether or not in the long term that is enforceable, they will be satisfied that it is taking the wheels off his argument and the momentum behind the calls for military action."

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