United States President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that his administration has evidence of chemical weapon use in Syria but remains hesitant to respond with the might of the US military until more details develop.
Last week the White House said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was believed “with varying degrees of confidence” to have used chemical weapons and had “demonstrated a willingness to escalate its horrific use of violence” against the people of his country engaged in a two-year-old civil war. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Pres. Obama upgraded his administration’s stance to say proof of chemical weapon use in Syria is concrete but cannot be directly tied to Pres. Assad’s regime at this time.
“What we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria, but we don’t know how they were used, when they were used [or] who used them,” said Obama.
The president made the remarks after White House Correspondents Association President Ed Henry asked, “Do you risk US credibility if you don’t take military action?” Obama spent several minutes responding by saying his administration has long opposed the actions of Pres. Assad and has been adamant with his requests for the leader to resign from office.
