DHAKA: The UK prime minister David Cameron has held an emergency meeting on Syria, after Britain drafted a UN Security Council resolution authorising ‘necessary measures’ to protect civilians in the country.

David Cameron said the resolution condemned the ‘chemical weapons attack by (Syrian President) Assad’, reports the BBC.

The resolution will be put forward at a meeting of the five permanent members of the council later in New York.

The UK National Security Council (NSC) meeting lasted an hour-and-a-half.

The Syrian government has denied it is responsible for a suspected chemical attack near Damascus on 21 August in which hundreds of people are reported to have died, blaming instead opposition figures.

A Downing Street spokesman earlier said Cameron had yet to decide the nature of the UK’s response but it would be ‘legal and specific’ to that attack.

BDST: 2003 HRS, AUG 28, 2013
RoR/RIS