WASHINGTON: US secretary of state John Kerry said on Sunday tests showed that sarin nerve gas was used in a deadly August 21 chemical attack near Damascus as he sought to build the case to convince skeptical lawmakers to authorize a military strike against the Syrian government.
He invoked the crimes of Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein and the potential threat to Israel from Syria and Iran in a round of television interviews a day after President Barack Obama delayed imminent military action in Syria to seek approval first from the US Congress — a decision that puts any strike on hold for at least nine days.
It became apparent on Sunday that convincing Congress of atrocities committed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces was only one of the challenges confronting Obama as he seeks their approval.
Lawmakers raised a broad array of concerns, including the potential effectiveness of limited strikes, the possible unintended consequence of sparking a wider Middle East conflict, the wisdom of acting without broader international backing to share the burden and war-weariness of the American public.
Many in Congress have been able to avoid taking a position on the merits of a military strike, focussing instead on demands that Obama consult them and seek their approval.
Now that Obama has put lawmakers on the spot by demanding that they take a position, many appeared to be hedging.
While Kerry predicted Obama would win the endorsement he wants, a growing cacophony of congressional critics — ranging from liberal Democratic doves to Republican Tea Party conservatives — illustrated just how hard that will be.
“This is squarely now in the hands of Congress,” Kerry told CNN, saying he had confidence “they will do what is right because they understand the stakes.”
Kerry declined to say whether Obama would go ahead with military action if Congress rejects the president’s request, as British parliament did last week to derail London’s role in any Syria military operation. Echoing Obama’s comments in the White House Rose Garden on Saturday, he insisted that the president had the right to act on his own if he chooses that course.
Kerry used the television appearances to provide further evidence backing the accusations against the Syrian government.
“I can share with you today that blood and hair samples that have come to us through an appropriate chain of custody, from east Damascus, from first responders, it has tested positive for signatures of sarin,” Kerry told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
It was the first time the administration has pinpointed what kind of chemical was used in the attack on a rebel-held area, which US intelligence agencies said killed more than 1,400 people, many of them children.
“So this case is building and this case will build,” Kerry told NBC’s “Face the Nation.”
Russian reaction
Russia is totally unconvinced by evidence presented by the US and its allies of an alleged chemical attack outside Damascus that the West says was perpetrated by the Syrian regime, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today.
Moscow vehemently opposes US-led plans for military action against the regime of Bashar al-Assad in response to the alleged attack, even though the timetable has now been put back by President Barack Obama’s decision to put it to Congress. “What we were shown before and most recently by our American partners as well as the British and the French absolutely does not convince us,” Lavrov said at a university lecture in Moscow.
He added there were “many doubts” about images of the alleged attack posted on the Internet. President Vladimir Putin said over the weekend it would have been “utter nonsense” for the regime to launch such an attack when it has the military ascendancy.
Lavrov said Russia had been shown some evidence by the West but expressed scepticism over its validity, saying “there was nothing concrete, without geographic coordinates or names.
” He accused the West of concealing comments by “many experts” who have expressed “serious doubts” about the validity of the video footage of the attack posted on the Internet. (Agencies)
