Ricciardone met with the Ankara representatives of several newspapers in the Turkish capital on Wednesday night. “We don’t plan to stage a military intervention in Syria at this point. Let us listen to the Syrian opposition. We are not preparing for an intervention now. We will see what the Arab League and the UN say. The Syrian government is using weapons to kill their own people. This is unacceptable. [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad has lost all credibility in our eyes,” Ricciardone said.
The US ambassador also said the United States will not turn a blind eye to Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz, used for a third of the world’s seaborne oil trade.
“We think Iran needs to make a choice. It can join the international powers. It can own nuclear power too but it should not be after nuclear weapons. What I mean by nuclear power is nuclear energy. But what Iran wants is nuclear weapons. We don’t want to resort to military sanctions against Iran.
Everything is on the table and we want to use diplomacy. This is done through sanctions,” he said.
