10 members of G20 join US in blaming Assad regime for Syrian chemical attack, call for action

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – Ten members of the Group of 20 international economies joined the United States in accusing the Syrian government of carrying a chemical weapons attack on civilians last month and called for a strong international response against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

A joint statement by the ten countries and the United States stopped short of explicitly calling for military action against the Syrian government, as President Obama is advocating.

But the tough language aligned half of the G-20 members with Obama, who worked the sidelines of the summit to build international support for a limited U.S. military response. Obama is seeking congressional authority to launch a strike.

The countries are Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom.