Syria Crisis: U.S. Asks New Zealand and Australia for Moral Support to Strike Assad Regime [VIDEO]

(Source: Youtube/youhotnews)

New Zealand and Australia were asked by the U.S. to pledge support for its potential military strike against Syria. Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand has yet to make a decision and give his commitment on the matter.

Although the British Prime Minister David Cameron pushed for a military action against Syria's chemical weapons attack against its own people, he was overpowered by members of Parliament who refused to vote for UK support.

The U.S. Congress will be deliberating whether it will approve President Barack Obama's decision to go on with plans for a limited military strike against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's regime. Assad's forces were suspected of using Sarin nerve gas that the United Nations said killed about 1,400 innocent civilians in Syria.

Prime Minister John Key revealed the U.S. had asked for New Zealand's support in a military intervention. Mr Key said the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed New Zealand's stand with Murray McCully, the Kiwi Foreign Affairs Minister.

John Key responded that New Zealand will have to evaluate all the circumstances involved in the Syrian crisis and the processes that were done. He also said New Zealand's ally had been "taking the temperature" and asking for moral support from several countries.

Mr Key believed that the Foreign Minister responded correctly when he said that New Zealand will need to consider before pledging support. The Prime Minister clarified that New Zealand was not asked to send military troops or make any military contribution.

(Source: Youtube/nzheraldtv)

Mr Key called the Syrian crisis involving chemical weapons as a "great human tragedy." He said military action against the Syrian regime is a significant step world leaders should take seriously. Mr Key said "the world cannot afford to have another Rwanda" in which about a million people were killed in a military intervention.

Mr Key still felt that New Zealand, as a Western country, has the responsibility to protect the Syrian people, but he remains hopeful that the Syrian crisis can be resolved peacefully by the UN Security Council.

Australia currently sits as the chair of the UN Security Council and has already pledged its support for a military strike against Syria. Patrick Low, spokesperson of Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr, said the country will support the U.S. in taking military action. However, Australia didn't offer military assistance since U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry did not ask for it.

Only France has strongly expressed that it would join the U.S. in a military strike against the Assad regime.