Is Secy of State John Kerry playing "fast and loose" with his rhetoric on Syria and Assad?
Background story...
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In a London news conference this morning, Secretary of State John Kerry responded to a question about whether Assad could do anything to avoid war by saying "he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week. Turn it over, all of it, without delay and allow a full and total accounting."
Kerry delivered the statement almost dismissively and quickly said Assad had no intention of giving up "weapons he denies using." But it was still the first time such a suggestion had been made by the Obama administration.
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First, let me say this is a great idea Kerry had. You want a resolution this issue without endangering Syrian civilian and US military lives -- this is it. And it takes care of any worry that Assad would use the CWs in the future if we don't lob a few missiles at him and potentially start a major regional conflict.
Now, is this Kerry just going off the cuff; or is this a calculated statement approved by Obama as a way out of the corner they've painted themselves into? I would be surprised if it's just Kerry pulling a Biden. In fact, this smells like a set-up question...like the WH had someone put out the question in order for Kerry to float the idea, even though he said it in a dismissive way and the State Dept has been tripping all over themselves in clarifying his remarks.
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The State Department was forced to clarify the remarks, calling them "rhetorical" and making clear its desire to strike could be tempered by a Syrian offer. Kerry's point, according to spokeswoman Jen Psaki, "was that this brutal dictator with a history of playing fast and loose with the facts cannot be trusted to turn over chemical weapons."
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Apparently Russia is calling Kerry's bluff!
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Just hours after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made an off-hand comment about how Syria could avert a military strike by turning over its chemical weapons program, Russia's foreign minister is proposing that the Assad regime do just that.
Sergey Lavrov said Monday that Russia will push Syria to place its chemical weapons under international control.
"If the establishment of international control over chemical weapons in that country would allow avoiding strikes, we will immediately start working with Damascus," Lavrov said.
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Quote:
While the State Department tried to walk back Kerry's statement, Lavrov said he has already handed over the proposal and expects a "quick, and hopefully, positive answer."
"We are calling on the Syrian leadership to not only agree on placing chemical weapons storage sites under international control, but also on its subsequent destruction and fully joining the treaty on prohibition of chemical weapons," he said.
His statement followed media reports alleging that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who discussed Syria with President Obama during the group of 20 summit in St. Petersburg last week, sought to negotiate a deal that would have Assad hand over control of chemical weapons.
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Interesting that Putin already had the idea last week and was in the process of negotiating something like this; and now Kerry signals something similar.
Again - I like it! Gen Dempsey already acknowledged that these "very limited" strikes won't do much anyway. So why bother with something that won't resolve the issue, which we're being told is Assad's cache of CWs that he will certainly use against his people over and over again.
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