WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has said that it is in the national security interests of the United States to respond to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad government’s alleged use of chemical weapons with a limited military action.
In his address to the nation, Obama asked the leaders of Congress to delay a vote on authorizing military action against Syria in order to give a Russian diplomatic proposal a chance to play out.
On Tuesday, the Syrian government agreed to Russian proposal asking Damascus to hand over its chemical arsenal to international control in a bid to avert the US military strikes.
Obama said that he would continue discussions on the Syrian issue with President Vladimir Putin, while Secretary of State John Kerry will meet his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Thursday.
The US President said that we’ll also give UN inspectors the opportunity to report their findings about what happened on August 21. However, he said that the US has no doubts that the Syrian government was responsible for the deadly chemical attack.
Obama called on the military to maintain its current posture to keep the pressure on the Syrian government.
