- By
- NICHOLAS WINNING
- ,
- CAROL E. LEE
- and
- KRISTINA PETERSON
- CONNECT
LONDON—Secretary of State John Kerry said the regime of President Bashar al-Assad could prevent possible U.S. military action by handing over its chemical weapons, as President Barack Obama mounts an intensive campaign to promote a strike on Syria.
Mr. Kerry, who has been traveling through Europe in recent days on a diplomatic push, said Monday in London that it was clear the Syrian government was unwilling to relinquish control of its chemical weapons.
President Obama, in a week poised to define his second term, will press his case in coming days to Americans wary of opening a new military front in the Mideast, including a nationally televised address Tuesday evening. He also is sending aides to hold closed-door intelligence briefings for members of Congress about the alleged gassing deaths of more than 1,400 Syrian civilians by Mr. Assad's forces.
At a joint news conference in London with his British counterpart, Mr. Kerry said there was no question the Assad regime was responsible for the Damascus chemical attack. It has a "huge stock" of chemical weapons, and the movement and use of them was tightly controlled by Mr. Assad himself, his brother, and a general, whom he didn't name, he said.
Asked whether there was anything the Syrian government could do to stop U.S. strikes, Mr. Kerry said, "Sure, he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week ... without delay and allow the full and total accounting for that, but he isn't about to do it and it can't be done, obviously."
[h=3]Timeline: Punitive Strikes[/h] U.S. military action against Syria likely would join a growing list of instances in which the U.S. has fired Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Mr. Kerry said he understood the legacy of the Iraq conflict, but that the U.S. administration wasn't "going to war" in Syria.
"We will be able to hold Bashar Assad accountable without engaging in troops on the ground or any other prolonged kind of effort in a very limited, very targeted, very short-term effort that degrades his capacity to deliver chemical weapons without assuming responsibility for Syria's civil war," he said.
A broad international coalition is central to the U.S. administration's efforts to persuade American lawmakers that military action has international support before they vote on the issue this week.
Mr. Obama's top challenge, as Congress returns Monday from summer recess, will be to find backing from enough lawmakers for a resolution authorizing a strike. The president faces an unusual alliance seeking to block military action, one comprised of the president's closest allies among liberal Democrats—including members of the Congressional Black Caucus—and his most strident critics among Republicans.
The administration's argument is that the U.S. case that Mr. Assad's forces used chemical weapons in the Aug. 21 attack is now settled—an assertion that Mr. Assad denied in an interview with Charlie Rose of PBS and CBS.
"We are no longer debating whether it happened or whether it didn't happen," White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said on CNN, part of a blitz of television interviews Sunday. "Congress has an opportunity this week to answer a simple question: Should there be consequences for him for having used that material?"
Mr. Obama will also go to Capitol Hill Tuesday to meet with Senate Democrats, a Senate Democratic aide said.
The Senate is expected to vote this week on a resolution authorizing Mr. Obama to use force in Syria. The current resolution, which could be amended, backs a military mission designed, in part, to change the momentum of the Syrian civil war and set the stage for Mr. Assad's departure.
But it isn't clear whether Congress—particularly the House, where Mr. Obama faces a more difficult battle—will back such a measure. Many lawmakers have said they oppose the resolution as too broad, and their contention likely was bolstered during the recess as they heard constituents back home voice concern. The House isn't expected to vote before next week.
After a week of intense White House lobbying on Capitol Hill following Mr. Obama's surprise decision to seek authorization from Congress for a military strike, some lawmakers say they remain unsure who was responsible for the alleged chemical-weapons attack or remain unconvinced a strike would be the appropriate response.
White House officials, including Mr. Obama, have argued that if Congress fails to pass a resolution the U.S. will be seen as less credible on the international stage and adversaries such as Iran and the Lebanese-based militant political group Hezbollah would be emboldened.
The White House has left open the possibility that Mr. Obama would proceed with military action if a vote in Congress fails. Administration officials also haven't ruled out presidential action if the House and Senate pass different resolutions yet are unable to agree on a compromise measure, but say it is too early to consider such a scenario.
In Moscow on Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said—after talks with his Syrian counterpart—that military strikes on Syria could cause an "outburst of terrorism" in the region and trigger a new wave of refugees.
But Mr. Kerry said the risk of not acting in Syria was greater than the risk of acting. "I don't believe we can shy from this moment," he said.
Prime Minister David Cameron had been a strong advocate of international military action to target Syria's alleged chemical-weapons capabilities, but he was forced to rule out British involvement after failing to convince the U.K. parliament to back his plans in a vote—a setback for Washington's efforts to build support for a show of force in Syria.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague and Mr. Kerry devoted a sizable part of their opening remarks at their joint news conference to expressing how U.K.-U.S. relations—the so-called "special relationship"—remained strong.
Mr. Hague said Britain supported the U.S. work toward Syrian peace talks in Geneva, addressing the humanitarian crisis from the Syrian conflict, supporting the moderate opposition in the civil war, and getting strong support for a response to Assad regime's alleged use of chemical weapons.
Mr. Kerry said the relationship between the two longtime allies was described as special and essential because it was so, based on shared values on freedom, opportunity and rights.
"Our bond ... is bigger than one vote, bigger than one moment in history," he said.
—Lukas Alpert in Moscow contributed to this article. Write to Nicholas Winning at [email protected], Carol E. Lee at [email protected] and Kristina Peterson at [email protected]
