UNITED NATIONS U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is warning that any "punitive" action taken against Syria for an alleged chemical weapons attack last week could unleash more turmoil and bloodshed in that nation's civil war.
Ban also cautioned nations such as the United States and France that may be considering such strikes that they are legal only in self-defense under the U.N. Charter or if approved by the U.N. Security Council.
Russia and China have used their veto power in the council multiple times to keep it from taking action against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
Boehner announces support for Syria strike
Obama on Syria strike: "This is not Iraq, this is not Afghanistan"
President Barack Obama received key support from leaders in Congress on Tuesday for a potential strike.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner emerged from a White House meeting and told reporters: "This is something that the United States, as a country, needs to do. I'm going to support the president's call for action. I believe that my colleagues should support this call for action."
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi also said they will support Mr. Obama because the U.S. has a compelling national security interest to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction.
U.N. officials said Tuesday the civil war in Syria has forced over 2 million people out of the country and over 4 million others are displaced within its borders, making Syria the nation with the largest number of people torn from their homes right now.
If the conflict continues 3.5 million Syrian refugees are expected by the end of the year, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said.
"At this particular moment it's the highest number of displaced people anywhere in the world," he told reporters in Geneva. "Syria has become the great tragedy of this century -- a disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history."
Syrian opposition says Assad regime prepping chemical attacks
Meanwhile, a Syrian opposition spokesman in Istanbul claimed Tuesday they have intelligence that the Assad regime is preparing for chemical weapons attacks.
Two convoys transporting chemical weapons warheads were moved sometime in the last 24 hours, and have reached their destinations, said Khaled al-Saleh, spokesman for the Syrian National Council, one of the most widely recognized Syrian opposition organizations, which is based in Turkey.
Al-Saleh said this information has come to his group from sympathetic officers in the Syrian military in the last 24 hours, reports CBS News correspondent Holly Williams. They said three convoys carrying chemical warheads left the place where they are normally based -- in Qutaifah, close to the border with Lebanon -- and that two have reached their destinations: Dumair airport near Damascus and Izra near Darah.
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