Update to add comments from Iran and point out that samples collected by the UN Chemical Weapons inspectors from Syria are now in Germany at the WIS laboratory.
So far, Iran's response to the chemical weapons attack suggests disagreement within the corridors of power in Tehran.
A chorus of Revolutionary Guards commanders have issued daily dire warnings that U.S. strikes on Syria would result in a conflict engulfing the whole region - implying retaliation against Israel, presumably by Iran's Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
"An attack on Syria will mean the imminent destruction of Israel," IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted as saying last week in an interview with the Tasnim news agency.
In a speech on Wednesday, Rouhani said any U.S. strike on Syria would be illegitimate.
"The fact that the United States has asked for feedback from its own Congress for action against Syria means that the United States does not have international legitimacy for this action from the United Nations, the Security Council, and public opinion," the ISNA news agency quoted Rouhani as saying
Rouhani has also condemned the use of chemical weapons, pointing out that Iranian troops were victims of gas attacks during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. He stopped short of apportioning blame for the attack in Syria.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif went further, blaming Syrian rebels. He also warned the United States not to get involved: "The Syria crisis is a trap set by Zionist pressure groups for (the United States)," Iran's English-language channel Press TV quoted him as saying.
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Putin was interviewed on Russian TV Channel One by AP.
Here are some quotes from that interview:
"As for that footage, video footage showing the dead children allegedly killed in the chemical attack, it is horrible. The question is who did it, who is to blame for that. The footage doesn't give answers to those questions."
He also said that said Moscow had provided some components of the S-300 air defence missile system to Syria but had frozen further shipments.
See below the squiggle.
Question:
'What would Russia's position be if you became convinced that it was by the government of Syria, would you agree to military action?'
Putin:
"I do not exclude this, but I would like to draw your attention to one absolutely key aspect. In line with international law, only the UN Security Council could sanction the use of force against a sovereign state. Any other pretext or method, which might be used to justify the use of force against an independent sovereign state, is inadmissible and can only be interpreted as an aggression."
..
"We have a contract for the delivery of the S-300s. We have supplied some of the components, but the delivery hasn't been completed. We have suspended it for now. But if we see that steps are taken that violate the existing international norms, we shall think how we should act in the future, in particular regarding supplies of such sensitive weapons to certain regions of the world."
..
"President Obama hasn't been elected by the American people with the purpose of being pleasant to Russia. And your humble servant hasn't been elected by the people of Russia to be pleasant to anyone. We work, we argue about some issues. We are human, sometimes one of us gets vexed. But I would like to repeat once again that global mutual interests form a good basis for searching for joint decisions."
..
Question:
What kind of extra measures might you need to take? We saw in Boston that it's hard to protect sporting events."
..
Putin:
"Terrorists are always threatening someone. If we're scared of them it means they've won. But that doesn't mean we can have a devil-may-care attitude towards this threat. We must do everything to stop these threats and not give the terrorists a single chance to demonstrate their brutality and hatred of mankind and politics."
Natanyahu addressed the Syria crisis in his New Year's message today and said:
Netanyahu:
"We see the situation in Syria, it's of great concern, great tragedy. We are following developments there very closely, and while we are not involved in the internal conflict in Syria, we will defend ourselves if it is necessary, we will act with resolve to protect our people. No one should doubt our resolve. And of paramount importance we also see Iran continuing to pursue its nuclear programme, and this poses a great threat to Israel, to the region, to the peace of the world. Iran's nuclear programme must be stopped. We simply cannot allow the world's most dangerous regime to obtain the world's most dangerous weapons."
It's fun, isn't it?
9:14 AM PT: Meanwhile first images from warplanes over Ariha and fighting in the outskirts of Damascus are released by AP. These are amateur videos by SHAM NEWS NETWORK (this is according to AP a loosely organized anti-Assad group based in and out of Syria which posts video and still images of anti-government protests on the internet. They claim they do not have connection to Syrian opposition parties or any other states.)
10:05 AM PT: Meanwhile "Der Spiegel" reports that samples collected by UN chemical weapons experts in Syria have been brought to Germany for The information comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin says he will not rule out military action against Syria.
The Scientific Institute for Defense Technologies (WIS) in the small town of Münster, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Hamburg, is the only large-scale German institute that researches defense against nuclear, biological and chemical warfare. However the WIS is one of several labs across the globe associated with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, one of the main collaborators in the UN investigation.