Video From Boston.com
John Kerry, the current Secretary of State and former Massachusetts senator, held a press conference on Monday, calling Syria’s use of chemical weapons “undeniable.” Kerry indicated that President Barack Obama is plotting action in the coming days.
Kerry called the alleged attack by Bashar al-Assad’s regime a “moral obscenity” that has shocked the world’s collective conscious.
Referencing a video of a Syrian man holding his dead child while surrounding bodies appeared to be spasming, Kerry called the acts “inexcusable” by any standard.
“Our basic sense of humanity is offended,” said Kerry during his press conference. Despite no immediate military response, Kerry promised that the Obama administration would act accordingly.
“Make no mistake, President Obama believes there must be accountability,” said Kerry.
A decision on the administration’s course of action will be heard in the coming days. Kerry’s statements came in the midst of discussions between the Obama administration and its international allies regarding possible responses to the Syrian army’s probable use of chemical weapons.
President Obama has called the use of chemical weapons a “red line” that would cause the world’s powers to act forcefully. Russia, however, continues to support Assad.
U.N. inspectors working to confirm the use of chemical weapons were fired upon by unidentified snipers, Monday, while traveling towards the site of the alleged chemical attack in Syria. An inspection had been scheduled, but U.N. inspectors were forced to flee. No injuries have been reported.
Syrian state TV reported that “terrorists” had fired on the inspectors.
The alleged chemical attacks last week in the rebel-held Damascus suburbs killed between 500 and 1,300 men, women and children according to a report by Reuters. If accurate, last week’s event would be the world’s most lethal chemical weapons attack since the 1988 chemical attack on Iran by Saddam Hussein.
Kerry’s statements today, coupled with the recent events in Syria, will strike some as similar to the circumstances precipitating the Bush Administration’s decision to invade Iraq. While evidence of a chemical attack by the Assad regime continues to grow, the thought of military intervention in another Middle Eastern country should be cause for concern.
