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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says any outside military action taken against Syria over its alleged use of chemical weapons on its own citizens could lead to a "disastrous war."
Maduro is a close ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and made the comment Tuesday while visiting a Russian warship in Venezuela's La Guaira port.
He says the military intervention that the U.S. and other nations are contemplating could, in his words, "be the beginning of a great international conflagration."
Maduro says the allegation of chemical weapons use by Syria on Aug. 21 "smells the same" as one of the reasons cited by Washington for invading Iraq in 2003 _ that the Iraqis possessed weapons of mass destruction.
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