Senator John McCain revealed he would table an amendment on Wednesday afternoon to introduce tougher language – describing a mission to “reverse the battlefield momentum” – to the proposed Senate authorisation of US military strikes.  Guardian Washington chief Dan Roberts reports:  Republican hawks on Syria are holding out for an amendment that would require the administration to seek to “reverse the battlefield momentum” in favour of rebel forces and involve more sweeping US attacks that would eventually force Assad to step down.  “Without the provision for reversing the momentum on the battlefield the conditions are not created for the departure of Bashar al-Assad,” McCain told reporters as he emerged from a classified Senate briefing session. “There is no policy without that and no strategy.”  McCain insists he was promised that such regime change would be made part of US policy by President Obama when he met on Monday at the White House with fellow Republican Lindsey Graham.  “Senator Graham and myself were assured that three things would happen as a result as a result of the US reaction to Assad's use of chemical weapons,” said McCain. “First, to degrade his capabilities to deliver those weapons. Second, to increase our support to the Free Syrian Army and resistance forces. And third, to change the battlefield momentum which presently is in favour of Bashar Assad and reverse it, which would then create conditions for a negotiated settlement and the departure of Bashar Assad.”  Obama appeared to respond favourably to McCain's request earlier this week, suggesting that his planned attack on Syria would “fit in” with a wider US policy favouring the departure of Assad.  But many on Capitol Hill are wary of so-called “mission creep” and reluctant to explicitly pursue an Iraq-style strategy of regime change, particularly as this would threaten the chances of getting sufficient Democrats to vote in favour of military authorisation in the House of Representatives.  McCain said he was confident the Senate foreign affairs committee was close to finding a compromise amendment that would include his tougher language.  “Bashar Assad has to know he is losing, that way you get a negotiated settlement for his departure,” added McCain. “The president has said Bashar Assad must go, so our policy has to be to implement what the president of the United States has said. I know that the president told me and Lindsey Graham that he favoured this change of momentum on the battlefield and Secretary Kerry said the same thing, so I don't know why they should be resistance to that being a part of the legislation.”  The senator also insisted his plan would not require US troops on the ground.
Follow live updates as Russia's leader Vladimir Putin warns the west against military action without UN approval and France's National Assembly debates the issue