Obama: Syria Action Would be Limited, No Decision Yet
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Date: 8/30/2013 9:11:44 PM
Sender: VOA
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U.S. President Barack Obama looks up during a meeting with Baltic leaders at the White House, Aug. 30, 2013. During the meeting the president spoke with reporters about the crisis in Syria.
WHITE HOUSE — U.S. President Barack Obama says he continues to assess options for "limited, narrow" military action in response to the deadly chemical weapons attack in Damascus on August 21. President Obama spoke after Secretary of State John Kerry summarized a U.S. intelligence report he said confirms Syrian government responsibility.
Obama＇s remarks came in the White House Cabinet Room at the beginning of a meeting with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
He had met earlier with his national security advisers to assess options for a military response to the chemical attack in the Syrian capital.
Obama referred to the release earlier of the U.S. intelligence report that he said detailed with "high confidence" that the government of President Bashar al-Assad carried out the attack.
"This kind of attack is a challenge to the world. We cannot accept a world where women and children, and innocent civilians are gassed on a terrible scale,
he said. "This kind of attack threatens our national security interests, by violating well-established international norms against the use of chemical weapons."
Obama discussed limitations on any action he may decide upon.
"In no event are we considering any kind of military action that would involve boots on the ground, any long-term campaign, but we are looking at the possibility of a limited, narrow, act that would help make sure that not only Syria but others around the world understand that the international community cares about maintaining this chemical weapons ban and norm," he said.
Obama knows there is war weariness in the United States, Britain and elsewhere. The president referred to what he called "a certain suspicion" about any military action in the wake of the Iraq war.
But he said the scale of the chemical attack in Syria demands action.
"Part of our obligation as a leader in the world is making sure that when you have a regime that is going to use weapons that are prohibited by international norms on their own people, including children, that they are held to account," he said. |
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