DHAKA: Iraqi premier Nuri al-Maliki dismissed Western military action in neighbouring Syria as a ‘dead end’ on Wednesday as he put his own country on high alert ahead of widely-expected strikes.

His remarks came as the United States and its allies weigh military intervention in Syria following alleged chemical weapons attacks last week in the Damascus suburbs that the West blames on the regime.

The Iraqi leader said on state television that Baghdad had long insisted ‘the military solution is a dead end that has nothing in it but the destruction of Syria’ reports The Straits Times.

‘Nothing is obvious on the horizon other than destruction, catastrophe and a civil war that has no winner’, he added

BDST: 2016 HRS, AUG 28, 2013
RoR/RIS