OTTAWA—Failure to stop Syria’s increasing use of chemical weapons against rebels in its civil war will lead to a precedent that humanity “will regret for generations to come,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper says.

Harper issued the warning Friday as he voiced open frustration with world leaders standing in the way of military action to block Syria’s use of chemical weapons.

Harper said the Syrian government, stuck in a stalemate in its internal conflict, “believes that it can win the war . . . through the use of chemical weapons.

“And they have been step-by-step ratcheting up that usage to see if anyone is going to challenge it,” the prime minister told reporters at the conclusion of a G20 meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia.

“I fear that if no one does challenge it, they will use chemical weapons on a scale way beyond anything we have seen to date to win that war,” the prime minister said. “If that happens, that is a precedent that humanity will regret for generations to come.”

But the deep divisions over how to respond to Syria’s action were on stark display this week as G20 leaders met for a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia. U.S. President Barack Obama’s call for military action has been blocked by Russian President Putin.

A meeting between the two at the summit appeared to make little headway in resolving their differences.

But Harper said that Obama and others who support military strikes against Syria do not “seek out military adventure for its own sake.

“What President Obama and others are proposing are not something they’re doing for popularity,” he said.

Harper said he made the case for military action during a dinner of G20 leaders but acknowledged the “large divergence of opinions around the table.”

Harper voiced frustration with countries such as Russia who insist that any plan for military action must first be endorsed by the United Nations, “even if that means no action at all will be taken.

“We would prefer to see global consensus on this,” Harper said.

“But I think we share the view of our allies that when we see developments that we think in the long-term are dangerous for the planet and therefore for us as well, we are simply not prepared to accept the idea that there is a Russian veto over all of our actions,” he said.

The prime minister said that inaction will “constitute a precedent that we think is very dangerous for humanity in the long-term. Obviously we are very supportive of our allies who want to take action.”

Harper, who grew up in Toronto’s Leaside neighbourhood, recounted memories of the suffering of World War I veterans at Sunnybrook Hospital recovering from the effects of mustard gas used on the battlefields of Europe.

But the prime minister said that since then, the “most ferocious, despicable and brutal powers” have steered away from chemical warfare.

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“I really do believe here that if we’re going to sit back and allow a regime to try and win a military conflict through the use of chemical weapons, we are in new territory,” Harper said.

“We are in brand new territory that is extremely dangerous and that there will be no turning back from,” he said.

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