[caption id="attachment_116266" align="alignright" width="271"] John Kerry attnded a meeting of Arab states to seek support for Obama's plan for air strikes against Isis. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images[/caption]
Claims that strikes would violate sovereignty, as Syrian rebels welcome move and other Arab states offer 'appropriate' support
• A tale of two speeches: emboldened Obama moves from dove to hawk
• Illegal? Irrational? Irrelevant? Obama's Isis address falls down on every front

The Syrian government and its close allies in Moscow and Tehran warned Barack Obama that an offensive against Islamic State (Isis) within Syriawould violate international law yesterday, hours after the US president announced that he was authorising an open-ended campaign of air strikes against militants on both sides of the border with Iraq.

Syrian opposition groups welcomed Obama's announcement and called for heavy weapons to fight the "terror" of Isis and Bashar al-Assad. Saudi Arabia and nine other Arab states pledged to back the US plan "as appropriate".

Hadi al-Bahra, head of the western-backed Syrian National Coalition, said the group "stands ready and willing to partner with the international community not only to defeat Isis but also rid the Syrian people of the tyranny of the Assad regime". In Reyhanli, on the Turkish-Syrian border, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) said that moderate anti-Assad forces urgently needed anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.

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