US President Barack Obama has said that he wants to give diplomacy a chance to avoid military strikes on Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons, but made a forceful case for why the US must act if negotiations fail.
Calling the US “the anchor of global security,” Obama in a televised address offered moral, political and strategic arguments for being ready to launch limited military strikes while trying to negotiate a diplomatic solution.
Obama termed the Russian proposal an “encouraging” sign to place Syria’s chemical weapons under international control.
Obama said that he has asked his military to continue maintaining its aggressive posture in the region pending a diplomatic solution to the Syrian crisis.
“I’ve ordered our military to maintain their current posture, to keep the pressure on Assad and to be in a position to respond if diplomacy fails,” he said.
He, however, said it is too early to tell if the Russian effort would succeed.
“It’s too early to tell whether this offer will succeed, and any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments. But this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force, particularly because Russia is one of Assad’s strongest allies,” he said.
“I have therefore asked the leaders of Congress to postpone a vote to authorise the use of force while we pursue this diplomatic path. I’m sending Secretary of State John Kerry to meet his Russian counterpart on Thursday, and I will continue my own discussions with (the Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin,” Obama said in his address to the nation.
“I’ve spoken to the leaders of two of our closet allies, France and the United Kingdom. And we will work together in consultation with Russia and China to put forward a resolution at the UN Security Council requiring Assad to give up his chemical weapons and to ultimately destroy them under international control,” he said in his address from the White House.
The 15-minute nationally televised speech initially was planned as Obama’s final push to win support from a sceptical public and Congress for his planned attack on Syria for what his administration calls a major chemical weapons attack on August 21 that killed more than 1,400 people in suburban Damascus.