No regret over Syria ‘red line’, Obama says
WASHINGTON // US president Barack Obama says he does not regret his remark about drawing a “red line” over Syria’s use of chemical weapons, a phrase critics say symbolises the US failure to act over the country’s conflict. Mr Obama made the comment in 2012 about possible US military action in Syria, saying that “a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilised”.
In a television interview broadcast on Sunday, Mr Obama confirmed that he had ad-libbed the phrase, and it was not in the text of his speech.
“I don’t regret at all saying that if I saw [Syrian president] Bashar Al Assad using chemical weapons on his people that that would change my assessments in terms of what we were or were not willing to do in Syria,” he said. “I think it was important for me as president of the United States to send a message that in fact there is something different about chemical weapons.”
In 2013, the Syrian military used chemical weapons in an attack against rebel-held areas of Damascus, killing about 1,500 civilians, including more than 400 children.
After it appeared that the US was preparing imminent air strikes against the Syrian gov- ernment, Washington instead agreed to a last-minute deal brokered by Moscow to send Syrian chemical weapons to Russia.
Critics blame the decision for humiliating the White House, encouraging Russia to launch air strikes in Syria – which have bolstered Mr Al Assad and killed civilians – and emboldening Moscow to ratchet up its confrontation with Washington.