Chemical Weapons

President Obama said Wednesday that the United States is still investigating whether chemical weapons were used in Syria and reiterated his pledge that their use by the government of President Bashar al-Assad would be a "game changer" for U.S. policy. "We have to make sure that we know exactly what happened, what was the nature of the incident, what we can document, what we can prove," Obama said at a news conference in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "I won't make an...

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry is headed back to the Middle East to press his case for peace talks between Syrian rebels and President Bashar Assad's regime amid increasing signs the new U.S. strategy to halt the war is being undermined by Russia. Kerry left Washington on Monday for Oman where he will have discussions with the sultan of the Gulf state. He will then travel on to Jordan to gather with 10 of America's closest European and Arab partners to discuss how to advance a...

You know you're in trouble when you can't even get your walk-back story straight. Stung by the worldwide derision that met President Obama's fudging and fumbling of his chemical-weapons red line in Syria, the White House leaked to the New York Times that Obama's initial statement had been unprepared, unscripted and therefore unserious. The next day Jay Carney said precisely the opposite: "Red line" was intended and deliberate. Which is it? Who knows? Perhaps Obama used the term last August to look tough, sound like a real world leader,...

BEIRUT — In a rare interview published Saturday, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad expressed doubt about the likely success of planned peace talks between his government and opposition forces and said he has no intention of stepping down. In the interview, given to Argentina's Clarin newspaper, the embattled leader also said he plans to run in a presidential election in 2014 and suggested that the rebels and their backers in the West do not want peace. Russia and the United...

President Obama took questions from the press at the White House on April 30, 2013. Read the full text of his remarks below. PRESIDENT OBAMA:   Hello, everybody. Hello. Good afternoon -- or good morning, everybody. I am here to answer questions in honor of Ed Henry, as he wraps up his tenure as president of the White House Correspondents' Association. Ed, because of that, you get the first question. Congratulations. Q : Thank you, sir. I really appreciate that.

President Obama is preparing to send lethal weaponry to the Syrian opposition and has taken steps to assert more aggressive U.S. leadership among allies and partners seeking the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, according to senior administration officials. The officials said they are moving toward the shipment of arms but emphasized that they are still pursuing political negotiation. To that end, the administration has launched an effort to convince Russian President Vladimir...

In informing Congress Thursday that Syria's government may have used chemical agents against the population, the Obama administration stated that "no option is off the table" should future evidence confirm the mounting suspicions. The phrase, evoking America's current confrontation with Iran and past ones with Iraq, prompts more questions than it offers clarity for how President Obama will navigate a worsening civil war that already has killed more than 70,000 people. Would...

BEIRUT — The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned Sunday that a series of powerful Israeli airstrikes near the Syrian capital opened the door to "all the options," underscoring the possibility that Syria's civil war could spill across regional borders. Assad's cabinet held an emergency meeting Sunday after explosions lit up the sky on the outskirts of Damascus on Friday and early Sunday. Syrian state media said the air attack had targeted a military and...

Zalmay Khalilzad was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2007 to 2009. The use of chemical weapons in Syria has increased pressure on President Obama to arm the opposition. Earlier in the conflict, I endorsed such a step . But circumstances have changed. Instead, the United States should focus on working with Russia to disarm Syria. A U.N. Security Council resolution mandating an inspection and disarmament process for Syria could open the door to wider negotiations on a political...

UNITED NATIONS — Britain and France have informed the United Nations that there is credible evidence that Syria has used chemical weapons on more than one occasion since December, according to senior diplomats and officials briefed on the accounts. In letters to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the two European powers said soil samples, witness interviews and opposition sources support charges that nerve agents were used in and around the cities of Aleppo, Homs and possibly Damascus, said the officials,...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration denounced Russia on Friday for providing Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime with anti-ship missiles, saying the weapons would only worsen a war that Washington and Moscow have been promising to work together on stopping. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, criticized what he called an "unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering. " He spoke at a news conference after the New York...

AMMAN, Jordan — Syrian casualties treated in Turkey show signs of being victims of chemical weapons, the Turkish foreign minister said Friday, adding to indications that President Obama's "red line" on the use of such arms may have been crossed. Wary of the false intelligence used to justify the 2003 war in Iraq, the United States says it wants proof that chemical weapons have been used before taking any action in Syria. Turkey confirmed last week it was testing blood samples from Syrian...

MOSCOW — Even as the chill in relations between the United States and Russia continues, the two countries are at least talking to each other more these days. With Secretary of State John F. Kerry and FBI director Robert Mueller both having come here this week for substantive discussions, Russian officials seem to have borrowed a talking point from the Obama administration: Although no one is actually using the word "reset," the Kremlin is nonetheless promoting the idea that Russia and the United States can pursue...

Zalmay Khalilzad was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2007 to 2009. The use of chemical weapons in Syria has increased pressure on President Obama to arm the opposition. Earlier in the conflict, I endorsed such a step . But circumstances have changed. Instead, the United States should focus on working with Russia to disarm Syria. A U.N. Security Council resolution mandating an inspection and disarmament process for Syria could open the door to wider negotiations on a political resolution.

You know you're in trouble when you can't even get your walk-back story straight. Stung by the worldwide derision that met President Obama's fudging and fumbling of his chemical-weapons red line in Syria, the White House leaked to the New York Times that Obama's initial statement had been unprepared, unscripted and therefore unserious. The next day Jay Carney said precisely the opposite: "Red line" was intended and deliberate. Which is it? Who knows? Perhaps Obama used the term last August to look tough, sound like a...

MOSCOW — Russia and the United States announced a new diplomatic effort Tuesday to bring together the embattled government of President Bashar al-Assad and Syria's opposition in hopes of ending a conflict now in its third year. The two nations, which have backed opposing sides in the deepening civil war, said they will push jointly for a new transitional government in Syria. Doing so would represent a new moment of cooperation between the countries, both influential in the...

AL-AJELAT, Libya — Documents showing the shipment of thousands of gas masks and chemical-weapons protection suits to Moammar Gaddafi's remaining strongholds in the last weeks of his regime raised fresh concerns Wednesday about whether the deposed Libyan leader's forces could still have access to deadly mustard gas. The Pentagon and an international monitoring organization have said that Gaddafi's remaining stockpiles are secure . But...

The reported use of chemical weapons by Syria's embattled Assad regime has not made much difference in that devastated country. Tens of thousands have been killed in brutal fighting already, and the heart-rending violence continues with no end in sight. The chemical weapons reports have had a dramatic effect in the United States, if not in Syria. The president had warned that their use would be a "gamechanger," with "enormous consequences," a proverbial "red line" that cannot be crossed.

F or all the armchair generals advocating U.S. military intervention in Syria, I have a few questions: Is human suffering the reason for the United States to act? That is the noblest and most altruistic of motives, and the estimated 70,000 lives that have been lost in Syria constitute a tragedy. But is there a numerical benchmark that constitutes a trigger for intervention? Didn't genocide in Rwanda claim hundreds of thousands of lives? Didn't war in the Congo kill an estimated 5 million?