Lawmakers Debate Whether US Outfoxed On Syria; Obama Says ‘Foundation’ Set For War Settlement
By Associated Press, Updated: Sunday, September 15, 2:09 PM
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers assessing the agreement on Syria’s chemical weapons argued Sunday about whether President Barack Obama was outfoxed by the Russians and had lost leverage in trying to end the civil war, or whether his threat of military action propelled the breakthrough.
Obama said the turn to diplomacy had laid “a foundation” toward political settlement of the conflict.
The deal announced Saturday in Geneva by U.S. and Russian diplomat sets an ambitious timetable for elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons by mid-2014, with rapid deadlines including complete inventory of its chemical arsenal within a week and immediate access by international inspectors to chemical weapons sites.
The agreement came in response to an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus, the capital, that the U.S. believes was carried out by the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Republican lawmakers said that committing to remove or destroy Syria’s chemical weapons was laudable, the agreement fell short by not mandating military action should Assad fail to comply.
MORE...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-says-agreement-to-destroy-assads-chemical-weapons-a-plus-for-the-world-as-well-as-syria/2013/09/15/279cebf4-1dd6-11e3-80ac-96205cacb45a_story.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
