| Obama Warns Syria: Chemical Weapons Use A Redline |
| Dec-03-2012 |
| Keywords: obama, warning, syria, chemical weapons, murder, red line |
The Obama administration on Monday issued a warning to Syrian President Bashar Assad and his officials.
"The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. And if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable," the president said in a speech at the National Defense University, in Washington.
The warning follows indications that the Assad regime in recent days has began moving its chemical weapons cache. It's unclear if the move is advance of an attack the Syrian civilians, or an effort to move the weapons out of reach of rebel attacks.
President's Obama's warning followed statements by both White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"As the opposition makes strategic advances and grows in strength, the Assad regime has been unable to halt the opposition's progress through conventional means," Carney said. "And we are concerned that an increasingly beleaguered regime -- having found its escalation of violence through conventional means inadequate -- might be considering the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people."
Clinton, in Prague for meetings with Czech officials, declared that Syrian use of chemical weapons was a "red line" that would be met by U.S. action.
"I'm not going to telegraph in any specifics what we would do in the event of credible evidence that the Assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people. But suffice it to say, we are certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur," she said.
Syria said Monday it would not use chemical weapons against its own people. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Syria "would not use chemical weapons -- if there are any -- against its own people under any circumstances."
The Assad regime in the past has tried to play down its possession of chemical weapons, never confirming that the Syrian government was in possession of such weapons.
The use of chemical weapons would mark an escalation to the bloodshed and murder that's been worsening in Syria. Some 40,000 people have been killed in the past 20 months, and the conflict is beginning to spill over into neighboring countries as well. |
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Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 8:30 PM Email to a friend |
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