From Geneva Sands, the Hill:  The U.S. Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder said the military alliance lacks two key mandates that would allow it to intervene in Syria to stop violence between President Bashar al-Assad and opposition forces.

Daadler explained that during the uprising in Libya last year, which many have compared to the crisis in Syria, NATO agreed that three criteria must be met before a decision to intervene militarily could be reached. Only one of those three, has been met with regards to Syria, said Daadler.

"First there had to be a demonstrable need for intervention. Clearly in the case of Syria there is a real need, given the indiscriminate shelling by government forces of the civilian population," Daadler said in an interview with the Royal United Services Institute Wednesday.

In addition, "clear regional support" and a "sound legal basis" for intervention also had to be found before NATO acted in Libya, neither of which are present in the case of Syria, said Daadler.

The NATO ambassador pointed to the Arab League’s call for action in Libya, as well as member country involvement in military operations, as an example of sufficient regional support. . . .

Daadler also said that in order to get a twenty-eight country NATO consensus, the legal justification would "most likely" have to be a UN Security Council resolution.  (photo: WTTW)

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