President Bashar Assad warned Sunday that if President Obama decides to launch military strikes on Syria, the U.S. and its allies should "expect every action" in retaliation. 
 
 "You should expect everything. Not necessarily from the government," Assad told "CBS This Morning" co-host Charlie Rose in his first television interview since Mr. Obama sought congressional approval for military action. 
 
 If U.S. strikes Syria, what happens next? 
 
 Chemical weapons attack in Syria 
 
 In a clear reference to his allies in Iran and the Islamic militant group Hezbollah, Assad warned that his government is "not the only player in this region." 
 
 "You have different parties, you have different factions, you have different ideology. You have everything in this region now," said Assad, who has been accused by the White House of killing 1,400 of his own people in an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack on the Damascus suburbs. 
 
 Asked by Rose whether any retaliation for U.S. strikes could include the use of chemical weapons, Assad -- whose government has never confirmed officially that it even has chemical weapons -- said it would depend "if the rebels or the terrorists in this region or any other group have it. It could happen, I don't know. I am not fortune teller." 
 
 Rose said Sunday on "Face The Nation" that the Syrian dictator was "remarkably calm" during the interview as he addressed the claims that he had gassed his own people. 
 
 Rose's full interview with Assad will air Monday night on PBS's "Charlie Rose". More excerpts were released Monday on "CBS This Morning." 
 
 Assad's government has blamed the Aug. 21 attack in Damascus' eastern Ghouta suburbs on opposition forces which have been battling to topple him from power for more than two years. 
 
 Russia has also suggested the rebels could have been behind the attack, and Moscow continues to urge the U.S. to delay any military action at least until a team of United Nations inspectors issues its report on the incident after collecting samples and evidence on the ground in Ghouta. The report is expected by mid-September, but will offer conclusions only on which chemical agents were used and how -- not on which side used them. 
 
 The Obama administration believes the evidence is already clear, based on secret intelligence allegedly showing Assad regime troops preparing for and even carrying out the attack on Ghouta using missiles tipped with chemical warheads, and intercepted communications between regime officials on the day of the attack. 
 
 Congressmen: Syrian action unpopular among American public 
 
 But while the White House has shared that intelligence with some members of Congress, and has managed to convince a few skeptical lawmakers, its public case for punitive action against Assad is based largely on circumstantial evidence. 
 
 U.S. officials and their allies around the world insist the Ghouta attack could only have been carried out by the Syrian government because only the Syrian military possesses the missiles, chemical agents and know-how necessary to successfully deliver a deadly toxin like sarin gas on such a wide scale. 
 
 Kerry makes case for Syria strike to Arab leaders 
 
 Secretary of State John Kerry has spent days trying to garner international backers for any U.S. military action in Syria, but he's managed to get firm commitments only from France and Saudi Arabia. 
 
 Kerry said Sunday in London that Saudi Arabia was supportive of a U.S-led strike and was convinced Assad was behind the Ghouta attack -- and he expected other Arab countries to issue statements of support on Monday, reported CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan. 
 
 But few were expected to say they would join in a military strike. 
 
 Kerry got a similarly hesitant response from the European Union on Saturday, which urged the world to send "a clear and strong response," but asked the U.S. to delay any action until the U.N. weapons inspectors finish their report. ||||| Syrian leader gives interview to PBS reporter, who says he suggested 'some kind of retaliation if a strike was made' 
 
 The Syrian president, Bashar Assad, has said there is no evidence he is responsible for the deadly gas attacks the US government claims left 1,429 people dead, including 426 children. 
 
 In an exclusive interview secured by Charlie Rose of PBS, Assad said: "There has been no evidence that I used chemical weapons against my own people." 
 
 Assad refused to confirm or deny that he had chemical weapons but said if he did, they were under "centralized control". 
 
 The interview will air in its entirety on PBS on Monday night, as president Barack Obama is due to sit down with six television networks for recorded interviews and press his case for a targeted attack on Syria. 
 
 Rose said Assad "does accept some of the responsibility" for the attack. He said: "I asked that very question: 'Do you feel any remorse?' He said, 'Of course I do,' but it did not come in a way that was sort of deeply felt inside. It was much more of a calm recitation of anybody who's a leader of a country would feel terrible about what's happened to its citizens." 
 
 Rose said Assad "suggested that there would be, among people that are aligned with him, some kind of retaliation if a strike was made". Assad, however, "would not even talk about the nature of the response". 
 
 Rose said: "He had a message to the American people that it had not been a good experience for them to get involved in the Middle East in wars and conflicts … that the results had not been good." 
 
 Later on Sunday, US secretary of state John Kerry was reported to have dismissed Assad's claim there is no evidence he used chemical weapons against his own people, saying "the evidence speaks for itself". The remark was reported by a US reporter attending a photo session in London, as Kerry prepared to meet the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to discuss the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. 
 
 Earlier in the day, the White House asserted that "common sense" proved Assad's government was responsible for the chemical attacks in Syria as the US weighs military action. Chief of staff Denis McDonough told NBC's Meet The Press there was "no question in my mind" that Assad had ordered the 21 August attack, outside Damascus. 
 
 Obama will set out his case for a strike against Assad in a speech from the White House on Tuesday, amid signs that a majority in the House of Representatives are against intervention. 
 
 McDonough told CNN's State of the Union that the evidence available so far showed Assad was to blame. "The material was used in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, that have been controlled by the opposition for some time," he said. "It was delivered by rockets, rockets that we know the Assad regime has and we have no indication that the opposition has." 
 
 With video of the consequences of the attack, McDonough said all this added up to "a quite strong common sense test irrespective of the intelligence that suggests the regime carried this out". 
 
 McDonough said "nobody doubts the intelligence". "The question for Congress this week is what are the consequences for having done so," he said, on Meet The Press, adding that Congress's decision would be watched closely by Iran and Hezbollah. "This is an opportunity to be bold with the Iranians." he said. "To make sure they understand that they do not have greater freedom of action, they do not have greater operating space to pursue a nuclear weapon that would destabilize that entire region, threaten our friends and allies and ultimately threaten us." 
 
 The United Nations is currently investigating the 21 August attack. Speaking in Paris this weekend, secretary of state Kerry said said he planned to discuss whether to wait for the UN findings with Obama, adding that the president had not decided on the matter. 
 
 White House chief-of-staff Denis McDonough speaks to Bob Schieffer on CBS. Photograph: Chris Usher/AP 
 
 McDonough said: "Obviously we are interested in what the UN inspectors have to say." But he added that the UN is "not going to be able to tell us, because their mandate will not allow them to tell us, who is responsible for the attack … We are right now focused on Washington … the president ultimately is going to make this decision in consultation with Congress on our timeline as best suits our interests." 
 
 On ABC's This Week, McDonough said the US was considering a "targeted, consequential, limited attack against Assad forces and Assad capabilities so that he is deterred from carrying out these actions again. 
 
 "Here is what it is not. It is not boots on the ground. It is not an extended air campaign. It is not Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya. This is a very concentrated, limited effort that we can carry out and that can underscore and secure our interests." 
 
 Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican and chairman of the House homeland security committee, gave voice to Congressional opposition to strikes on Syria when he told Meet The Press: "The problem is I think lobbing a few Tomahawk missiles will not restore our credibility overseas. It's kind of a face-saving measure for the president after he drew the red line. 
 
 "Little wars start big wars and we have to remember that. Who are we supporting in this war? We are supporting a rebel faction, a rebel cause, that has now been infiltrated and hijacked by many al-Qaida factions." 
 
 McCaul said there was a risk that chemical weapons could end up in the hands of al-Qaida operatives after a US attack. McCaul said, "ironically", that Congress had been debating its next step in Syria on the eve of 9/11. 
 
 McCaul also said that while images of victims of the gas attacks were "horrific" and Assad was "a brutal dictator", "I don't want to see those images broadcast in the United States with American kids." ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama spoke by phone on Saturday 
 
 The UK and the US have threatened a "serious response" if it emerges Syria used chemical weapons last week. 
 
 Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama spoke on the telephone for 40 minutes on Saturday. 
 
 Both were "gravely concerned" by the "increasing signs that this was a[n]... attack carried out by the Syrian regime", Mr Cameron's office said. 
 
 But intervention would have serious consequences and the US case was weak, the Syrian information minister warned. 
 
 In an interview with Lebanese TV, Omran Zoabi said: "If the US leads a military intervention, this will have dangerous consequences. It will bring chaos and the region will burn." 
 
 The Syrian government has denied any use of chemical weapons, blaming rebel fighters instead. 
 
 State television reported on Saturday that soldiers had found chemical agents in tunnels used by the rebels to the east of Damascus. 
 
 It broadcast images of gas masks and plastic containers, but nothing to support official statements that soldiers had "suffered from cases of suffocation" when rebels used poison gas "as a last resort" after government forces made "big gains" in the suburb of Jobar. 
 
 Image caption Syria's government said chemical materials used by rebels had been found 
 
 Opposition activists accuse forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad of killing between 500 and more than 1,000 civilians in several suburbs east and west of capital in the early hours of Wednesday morning. 
 
 They want the areas inspected by UN chemical weapons experts who are already in Damascus to investigate other suspected attacks. 
 
 Analysis Out of the chaos and confusion of the past few days, several things have emerged clearly. Even the regime itself and its closest allies, Russia and Iran, do not dispute that chemical weapons were used in the suburbs of Damascus on Wednesday. The evidence from a huge flow of distressing amateur video is too massive to dismiss. Both Moscow and Tehran have said they are urging the Syrian authorities to co-operate with the UN chemical weapons inspectors already in Damascus, and the Iranian foreign minister has quoted his Syrian counterpart as saying the government is preparing the conditions for a site visit. With combat continuing in the affected areas, there is clearly scope for prevarication and delay, although Western patience is short. But at least an appearance of regime willingness to co-operate may for the moment let the US and its allies off the hook. For one of the other elements that has become clearer than ever in the past few days is the great reluctance of US President Barack Obama and others to plunge into an embroilment that would be hard to get out of, and which would carry a very high risk of aggravating the situation even further. Attack may force search for peace 
 
 The UN's disarmament chief, Angela Kane, arrived in Damascus on Saturday to press the authorities for access. 
 
 Iran's Irna state news agency reported that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had told his Iranian counterpart that Damascus was "co-operating" with the UN experts and "preparing the opportunity for them to visit areas which have been attacked chemically by terrorist groups". 
 
 'Gathering facts and evidence' 
 
 "The UN Security Council has called for immediate access for UN investigators on the ground in Damascus," Downing Street said in a statement. 
 
 "The fact that President Assad has failed to co-operate with the UN suggests that the regime has something to hide." 
 
 It said Mr Cameron and Mr Obama had "reiterated that significant use of chemical weapons would merit a serious response from the international community and both have tasked officials to examine all the options". 
 
 The statement said the two men had agreed it was "vital that the world upholds the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons and deters further outrages". 
 
 They would keep in "close contact", it added. 
 
 The US president earlier convened his National Security Council to discuss options on Syria. 
 
 US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the American military, which is repositioning naval forces in the Mediterranean, was ready to act. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Chuck Hagel: "President Obama has asked the defence department to prepare options for all contingencies" 
 
 "President Obama has asked the defence department to prepare options for all contingencies. We have done that and we are prepared to exercise whatever option - if he decides to employ one of those options," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur. 
 
 BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said he understood that the "serious response" mentioned in the UK statement would not include "boots on the ground". 
 
 But a range of other options was not ruled out, he said, potentially including air strikes. 
 
 On Sunday, Iran's deputy armed forces chief, Massoud Jazayeri, warned the US against crossing the "red line" on Syria, saying it would have "severe consequences", according to the Fars news agency. 
 
 'Neurotoxic symptoms' 
 
 The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said three hospitals it supports in the Damascus area had treated about 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms" early on Wednesday morning, of whom 355 have died. 
 
 While MSF said it could not "scientifically confirm" the use of chemical weapons, staff at the hospitals described a large number of patients arriving in the space of less than three hours with symptoms including convulsions, pinpoint pupils and breathing problems. 
 
 MSF director of operations Bart Janssens said the symptoms - as well as the "massive influx of patients in a short period of time" - strongly suggested mass exposure to a neurotoxic agent. 
 
 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, meanwhile said it had documented the deaths of 322 people, including 82 women and 54 children. 
 
 On Sunday morning, several suburbs of Damascus reportedly came under heavy shell and mortar fire, as government forces continued their offensive on rebel strongholds. 
 
 At least 114 people were killed across the country on Saturday, including 33 people in the capital, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition activist network. 
 
 The UN says more than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Assad began more than two years ago. 
 
 'Chemical attack': What we know
– If the US does indeed strike Syria, "you should expect everything," "expect every action," from Syria in response, President Bashar al-Assad tells Charlie Rose in a new interview. CBS This Morning previewed the interview today; it airs in full on PBS tonight. Some of Assad's quotes, from CBS and the Guardian: "You should expect everything. Not necessarily from the government," Assad said when asked about Syria's response to a US strike. Syria is "not the only player in this region," Assad said, likely referring to Iran and Hezbollah. "You have different parties, you have different factions, you have different ideology. You have everything in this region now." Asked if that retaliation might include chemical warfare, Assad said it depends on whether "the rebels or the terrorists in this region or any other group have it. It could happen, I don't know. I am not fortune teller." "There has been no evidence that I used chemical weapons against my own people," Assad said; he insisted President Obama has not presented any evidence to Congress. (One report suggests the army may have used chemical weapons without Assad's OK.) Rose said Assad claims to feel remorse over the attack nonetheless, and that he would neither confirm nor deny whether his government has any chemical weapons. (If it does, Assad said, the weapons are under "centralized control.") "Our soldiers in another area were attacked chemically. Our soldiers," Assad said. "They went to the hospital as casualties, because of chemical weapons. But in the area where they said, 'The government used chemical weapons,' we only had video and we only have pictures and allegations. We're not there. Our forces, our police, our institutions don't exist. How can you talk about what happened if you don't have evidences? We're not like the American administration, we're not social media administration or government. We are the government that deal with reality." "We are against any WMD, any weapons of mass destruction, whether chemical or nuclear," Assad insisted.