Menlu AS Sebut Assad bagai Hitler, tapi Pernah Makan Malam Bersama
Compared Assad to Hitler, Kerry Pictured Dining with Assad
Editor : Cahyani Harzi
Translator : Dhelia Gani
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SEBUAH foto mencengangkan menunjukkan Menlu AS, John Kerry tampak makan malam penuh keakraban Presiden Suriah, Bashar al-Assad terungkap pada saat Kerry menegaskan untuk menggunakan kekuatan militer terhadap Suriah dan menjatuhkan diktator Suriah dari kekuasaannya.
Kerry, yang membandingkan Assad dengan Adolf Hitler dan Saddam Hussein kemarin, tampak makan malam bersama istrinya Teresa Heinz dan istri Assad pada 2009.
Assad dan Kerry, senator Massachusetts, tampak mencondongkan tubuh terhadap satu sama lain dalam percakapan penuh keakraban.
Tampak berdiri pelayan di sisi mereka dengan nampan minuman hijau, diyakini sebagai minuman lemon plus mint.
Gambar itu kemungkinan diambil pada Februari 2009 di restoran Naranj di Damaskus, ketika Kerry memimpin delegasi AS ke Suriah untuk membahas jalan perdamaian di wilayah tersebut.
Sementara kebijakan Presiden Barack Obama tampaknya melunak untuk melakukan serangan militer terbatas terhadap Suriah atas keberatan untuk Kongres dan menjamin setidaknya satu minggu penundaan serangan militer, Kerry tetap mengungkap bahaya yang ditimbulkan oleh rezim Suriah.
Dia mengatakan bahwa Assad sekarang tak ubahnya Adolf Hitler dan Saddam Hussein ´dalam menyebarkan senjata kimia terhadap rakyatnya sendiri.
Kerry mengatakan Minggu, bahwa AS kini memiliki bukti bahwa gas saraf sarin digunakan di Suriah dan bahwa ´terbukti kuat gas kimia´ digunakan untuk serangan militer.
Dalam pidato yang penuh kemarahan di Washington Jumat lalu, ia menyebut Assad sebagai ´preman dan pembunuh, "dan mendesak dunia untuk bertindak. "Sejarah akan menilai kita semua luar biasa kasar jika kita menutup mata terhadap sang diktator,´ kata Kerry.
Dan saat menghadiri pertemuan dengan 120 anggota Kongres dari Demokrat, Kerry menyebut Assad sebagai ´diktator´.
Pemerintahan Obama telah meluncurkan senjata kimia Suriah yang menelan korban tewas di pinggiran Damaskus terhadap 1.429 orang - jauh lebih dari perkiraan sebelumnya - termasuk lebih dari 400 anak-anak.
Kerry mengatakan dia yakin bahwa Kongres akan memberikan dukungan kepada Obama untuk melakukan serangan terhadap Suriah, namun mantan senator Massachusetts juga mengatakan presiden memiliki kewenangan untuk bertindak sendiri jika Kongres menolak serangan militer.
AN ASTONISHING photograph of John Kerry having a cozy and intimate dinner with Bashar al-Assad has emerged at the moment the U.S Secretary of State is making the case to bomb the Syrian dictator´s country and remove him from power.
John Kerry, who compared Assad to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein yesterday, is pictured around a small table with his wife Teresa Heinz and the Assads in 2009.
Assad and Kerry, then a Massachusetts senator, lean in towards each other and appear deep in conversation as their spouses look on.
A waiter is pictured at their side with a tray of green drinks, believed to be lemon and crushed mint.
The picture was likely taken in February 2009 in the Naranj restaurant in Damascus, when Kerry led a delegation to Syria to discuss finding a way forward for peace in the region.
While President Barack Obama has softened his military threat against Syria by putting the question to Congress and guaranteeing at least a week´s delay, Kerry remains outspoken about the dangers posed by the Syrian regime.
He said that Assad ´has now joined the list of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein´ in deploying chemical weapons against his own people.
Kerry said Sunday that the U.S. now has evidence that sarin nerve gas was used in Syria and that ´the case gets stronger by the day´ for a military attack.
During a passionate speech in Washington last Friday, he called Assad a ´thug and murderer,´ and urged the world to act. ´History would judge us all extraordinarily harshly if we turned a blind eye to a dictator,´ Kerry insisted.
And today in a call to 120 Democratic congressmen Kerry called Assad a ´two-bit dictator´.
The Obama administration has placed the Syrian chemical weapons death toll on the outskirts of Damascus at 1,429 people - far more than previous estimates - including more than 400 children.
Kerry has said he is confident that Congress will give Obama its backing for an attack against Syria, but the former Massachusetts senator also said the president has authority to act on his own if Congress doesn´t give its approval.
