Summary Hagel says US forces ready to strike Syria if ordered. Cameron calls urgent UK Parliament session.
BRUNEI / LONDON (AP) - US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says US forces are now ready to act on any order by President Barack Obama to strike Syria.
The US Navy has four destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea within range of targets inside Syria. The US also has warplanes in the region.
In an interview Tuesday with BBC television during a visit to the southeast Asian nation of Brunei, Hagel also predicted that US intelligence agencies would soon conclude that last week s deadly attack on civilians in a Damascus suburb was a chemical attack by the government.
He called it "pretty good intelligence."
Any strike by the United States and it allies on Syria will probably aim to teach President
Bashar al-Assad - and Iran - a lesson on the risks of defying the West, but not try to turn the tide of the civil war.
US and European officials say a short, sharp attack - perhaps entirely with cruise missiles - is the preferred response to what they believe is Assad s responsibility for a chemical weapons attack on rebel-held areas last week.
If such a strike goes ahead, President Barack Obama s administration will have to select its targets with extreme care as it tries to deter not only Assad but also Syria s ally Iran over its nuclear programme.
"The administration has to decide what its objective is - punishment to show that there is a price and to re-establish a deterrent, or to change the balance of power in Syria," said Dennis Ross, a top White House adviser on the Middle East until late 2011. "I suspect it will be geared towards the former."
Meanwhile, other Western powers have told the Syrian opposition to expect a strike against President Bashar al-Assad s forces within days, according to sources who attended a meeting between envoys and the Syrian National Coalition in Istanbul.
"The opposition was told in clear terms that action to deter further use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime could come as early as in the next few days, and that they should still prepare for peace talks at Geneva," one of the sources who was at the meeting on Monday told Reuters.
In another development Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday recalled Parliament for an urgent discussion and vote on a possible military response to the alleged chemical attack in Syria.
Cameron said the crisis session will be held Thursday, when Parliament would traditionally be on its summer recess.
A clear motion will be considered by lawmakers, who have been urging Cameron to consult Parliament before any possible action against Syria.
Cameron s office said that the UK is considering a "proportionate" response that would deter Syrian President Bashar Assad from using chemical weapons in the future.
The decision on the recall came as the military drew up contingency plans for a possible military attack on Syria.
Britain s Ministry of Defense also said that a planned Royal Air Force training mission involving British Typhoon fighter jets has been postponed. The jets were to have been deployed on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
