Ex-MI Chief Amos Yadlin: Obama's Credibility at Stake

The Head of the Institute for National Security Studies, Amos Yadlin, who served in the past as Head of Military Intelligence, said at week's end that if US President Barack Obama does not attack in Syria, his credibility in the world will suffer a meaningful setback.

This will have implications for the Iranian nuclear weapons issue, he explained, because in that case, too, Obama has set a "red line."

In an interview broadcast on Voice of Israel public radio Saturday evening, Yadlin said that if a strike against Syria fails to materialize, Obama will have difficulty persuading the world to take meaningful steps against Iran in the future.

Yadlin said that the aftermath of the incident in which chemical weapons were used in Syria shows us how difficult it is to receive approval for military action in the UN Security Council and the international community – even when there is proof of the use of weapons of mass destruction.

He estimated that Russian pressure may result in a diplomatic solution in which chemical weapons would be removed from Syria without military involvement. Yadlin added that the Russian ships sent to the Mediterranean in the last few days are mostly intelligence ships, and not warships.