The United States will regret attacking Syria on the basis of trumped up allegations of chemical weapons use, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Monday.



"Failure awaits the United States as in all previous wars it has unleashed, starting with Vietnam and up to the present day," Assad told the Izvestia daily when asked what would happen if Washington decided to strike or invade Syria.


The statement came a day after a senior White House official scorned as Syria's agreement to a UN investigation into last week's alleged chemical weapons attack outside Damascus. The United States has "very little doubt" Assad's forces used such weapons, the official said.


In a sign the U.S. may be a step closer to an armed response, naval forces have already been dispatched toward Syria's coastal waters, although President Barack Obama has cautioned against a hasty decision.

In Moscow, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying Russia is very concerned Washington may respond militarily to the suspected chemical weapons attack by Syria's government in a Damascus suburb.


Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged restraint when talking with his U.S. counterpart, the ministry said on Monday.


"The minister [Lavrov] stressed that the official announcements from Washington in recent days about the readiness of U.S. armed forces to 'intervene' in the Syrian conflict have been received in Moscow with deep concern," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, referring to a conversation on Sunday.


In another development, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday inspectors expect "to begin conducting on-site fact-finding activities…in just a matter of hours. And every hour counts. We cannot afford any more delays."

"All those in Syria have a stake in finding out the truth," the UN leader told a news conference in Seoul, South Korea. "The whole world should be concerned about any threat or use of chemical weapons. And that is why the world is watching Syria."