World press on US stance on the Syrian crisis (August 25, 2013)

The Financial Times has published an article by Richard Haass, the head of the Council on Foreign Relations, headlined "America must respond to the atrocities in Syria."

The Obama administration is now in a very difficult position due to its own policies, the author writes, commenting on the recent reports concerning chemical attacks in Syria.

President Obama once stated that the use of chemical weapons would be a "red line" for the US authorities, showing that the time has come to interfere.

"A US president cannot say something crosses a red line and then ignore it," the author writes.

However, according to Haass, the US administration has decided to abstain from any kind of interference. This means that the president's statement was simply futile, he writes.