Obama to Assad: Use of Chemical Weapons Totally Unacceptable
President Barack Obama dramatically told Syria's President Bashar Assad Monday not to turn chemical weapons on his own people, following U.S. warnings his forces were mixing deadly sarin gas.
Obama publicly told the increasingly isolated Assad not to unleash the "worst weapons of the 20th century" in the 21st, capping a day of alarming American warnings on the Syrian regime's intentions.
"Today, I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command, the world is watching, the use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable," Obama said.
"If you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable."
The Damascus government, hitting back at increasingly explicit U.S. rhetoric, had earlier pledged never to take such a step, which the Obama administration warns would cross a "red line" and result in U.S. action.
A U.S. official told Agence France Presse that Syria had begun mixing chemicals that could be used to make sarin, a deadly nerve agent, while CNN reported Damascus could deploy the gas in a limited artillery attack on advancing rebels.
The White House has been loath to make a direct intervention in Syria but indicated Monday that the use of chemical weapons could change the equation.
"We are concerned that an increasingly beleaguered regime, having found its escalation of violence through conventional means inadequate, might be considering the use of chemical weapons against the Syrian people," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
Washington worries that battlefield advances by rebels could prompt Assad to use chemical arms, or that such stocks could become insecure or find their way into the hands of groups hostile to the United States and allies.
In televised remarks, an unnamed Syrian foreign ministry official said Syria would "never, under any circumstances, use chemical weapons against its own people, if such weapons exist."
The New York Times reported that in addition to public warnings to Assad, U.S. and European officials had sent private warnings to Damascus through Russia.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during a trip to Prague, declined to "telegraph" what Washington would do if Syria used chemical weapons but said: "we're certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur."
A 150-strong U.S. task force, including special forces soldiers, has been stationed in Jordan for several months, and could be called into action if Syria loses control of its chemical weapons amid battlefield chaos.
Source: Agence France Presse
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