US President Barack Obama: "I have a deeply held preference for peaceful solutions"
President
Obama says he will pursue diplomatic efforts to remove Syria's chemical
weapons but has ordered the US military to "be in a position to
respond" if such measures fail.
In a televised address, he said he had asked Congress to postpone a vote authorising the use of force.The US has threatened air strikes after a chemical weapons attack killed hundreds in Damascus last month.
Russia has proposed such weapons be placed under international control.
Although Syrian officials have agreed in principle, the US and its allies remain sceptical.
The Russian plan triggered a day of diplomatic wrangling at the UN on Tuesday.
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Diplomats at the UN would appear to be in a holding pattern
until a critical meeting takes place in Geneva between John Kerry and
his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
If there is to be an agreement, it will be hammered out between the US and Russia. They are the key players. News of the meeting emerged shortly after Russia cancelled a closed-door session of the UN Security Council that it had requested only hours before. It was a tacit acknowledgment that the real diplomacy will take place there.
Public attention may have been on Barack Obama as he delivered his nationwide televised address.
But diplomats' eyes will be on what happens behind closed doors in Geneva, and also on the private discussions that President Obama may end up having with Vladimir Putin. If there is to be a breakthrough this week, it will come during those talks rather than in New York.
If there is to be an agreement, it will be hammered out between the US and Russia. They are the key players. News of the meeting emerged shortly after Russia cancelled a closed-door session of the UN Security Council that it had requested only hours before. It was a tacit acknowledgment that the real diplomacy will take place there.
Public attention may have been on Barack Obama as he delivered his nationwide televised address.
But diplomats' eyes will be on what happens behind closed doors in Geneva, and also on the private discussions that President Obama may end up having with Vladimir Putin. If there is to be a breakthrough this week, it will come during those talks rather than in New York.
Speaking from the White House,
President Obama said his administration had long resisted calls for
military action in Syria because he did not believe that force could
solve the civil war.
But he said he changed his mind after the chemical weapons attack in the Damascus suburbs on 21 August."The images from this massacre are sickening," he said.
"On that terrible night, the world saw in gruesome detail the terrible nature of chemical weapons and why the overwhelming majority of humanity has declared them off limits, a crime against humanity and a violation of the laws of war."
The Syrian government has strongly denied carrying out the attack and instead blamed rebels trying to oust President Bashar al-Assad.
But Mr Obama said the US "knew" the Assad regime was to blame.
"We know that Assad's chemical weapons personnel prepared for an attack near an area where they mix sarin gas," he said.
"They distributed gas masks to their troops. Then they fired rockets from a regime-controlled area into 11 neighbourhoods that the regime has been trying to wipe clear of opposition forces."
Mr Obama said that such an attack was not only a violation of international law it was also a danger to US national security.
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Americans in Washington react to the speech
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9 Sep: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says he has urged Syria to hand in chemical weapons and have the destroyed; Syria welcomes plan
10 Sep: Barack Obama postpones Congress vote on military action and says he will give Russian plan a chance
Chemical weapons plan timeline
5-6 Sep: Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama discuss idea of placing Syria's chemical weapons under international control on sidelines of G20 summit9 Sep: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says he has urged Syria to hand in chemical weapons and have the destroyed; Syria welcomes plan
10 Sep: Barack Obama postpones Congress vote on military action and says he will give Russian plan a chance
He said that "after careful
deliberation" he had decided to respond to the use of chemical weapons
through "a targeted military strike".
"The purpose of this strike would be to deter Assad from
using chemical weapons, to degrade his regime's ability to use them and
to make clear to the world that we will not tolerate their use. That's
my judgment as commander in chief."However, he said he would not "put American boots on the ground in Syria" or pursue open-ended action such as that in Iraq or Afghanistan.
He added: "Others have asked whether it's worth acting if we don't take out Assad. As some members of Congress have said, there's no point in simply doing a pinprick strike in Syria. Let me make something clear: The United States military doesn't do pinpricks."
President Obama said he welcomed Russia's proposal as an alternative to military action, but added: "It's too early to tell whether this offer will succeed.
"Any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments. But this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force."
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"Hunting down banned chemical weapons in a secretive Middle Eastern dictatorship is not easy," as Frank Gardner reports
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The president's speech was, for a few days, a hugely important date in the diary but by the time he came to deliver it, events had rendered it almost an irrelevance”
He confirmed earlier reports that
US Secretary of State John Kerry would meet his Russian counterpart
Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Thursday, adding: "I will continue my own
discussions with President (Vladimir) Putin."
"I've spoken to the leaders of two of our closest allies,
France and the United Kingdom. And we will work together in consultation
with Russia and China to put forward a resolution at the UN Security
Council requiring Assad to give up his chemical weapons and to
ultimately destroy them under international control."He added: "Meanwhile, I've ordered our military to maintain their current posture, to keep the pressure on Assad and to be in a position to respond if diplomacy fails."
The BBC's North America Editor Mark Mardell said the president's address was clear but almost entirely lacking in passion and devoid of new arguments.
The arguments at the UN continued on Tuesday with the UK, US and France calling for a timetable and the consequences of a Syrian failure to comply with any resolution spelt out. Washington has warned it will "not fall for stalling tactics".
Russia - an ally of President Assad - said any draft resolution putting the blame on the Syrian government was unacceptable and urged a declaration backing its initiative.
UK government sources have told the BBC that the exact wording of the joint US, French and British resolution on Syria's chemical weapons is still to be agreed.
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