President Barack Obama will make an “informed decision” and hold Syria’s government accountable for the “moral obsenity” of using chemical weapons against its people, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said.
“By any standard it is inexcusable,” Kerry told reporters in Washington today, saying evidence makes it “undeniable” that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime was responsible for last week’s attack that the opposition blames for more than 1,300 deaths.
Obama is consulting with allies and members of Congress and “believes there must be accountability for those who have used the world’s most dangerous weapons,” Kerry said.
Earlier Monday, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird for the first time on Monday acknowledged the chances of reaching a “political solution” in Syria are becoming increasingly slim as the two-year conflict enters “a new dark chapter.”
The Conservative government has been extremely reluctant to discuss any type of military intervention in Syria, but reports of chemical weapon attacks last week have suddenly upped the ante and pressured the international community to respond.
The U.S., Britain and France have threatened retaliatory strikes in recent days, and leaders in those countries were in touch with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Baird over the weekend.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/08/26/chemical-weapons-were-used-in-syria-assad-is-destroying-evidence-u-s-secretary-of-state-john-kerry/