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Kerry Says Too Much: London Blamed For Obama’s Refusal to bomb Syria in 2013

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By Lillian Zheng

January 7, 2017
5:21 pm
Los Angeles, CA

At a press conference, trying to defend some of the movements of the Obama administration, Secretary of State John Kerry said the US did not attack the Syrian government over three years ago, due to the withdrawal of British support for such an air campaign. US Secretary of State John Kerry blamed the UK for President Barack Obama’s failure to implement the threat to use force against the Syrian government over three years ago. At a news conference organized to promote his four years as head of US diplomacy, Kerry said Obama has not given up his promise to bomb the Syrian government if Bashar al Assad used chemical weapons. In 2012, Obama argued that any use or movement of chemical weapons in Syria, would mean crossing a “red

US Secretary of State John Kerry blamed the UK for President Barack Obama’s failure to implement the threat to use force against the Syrian government over three years ago.

At a news conference organized to promote his four years as head of US diplomacy, Kerry said Obama has not given up his promise to bomb the Syrian government if Bashar al Assad used chemical weapons.

In 2012, Obama argued that any use or movement of chemical weapons in Syria, would mean crossing a “red line” and draw a military response from the US.

Obama was pressed more intensively to keep his promise after militants backed by foreign elements have accused the government of President Bashar al-Assad of launching a chemical attack in the Damascus suburbs August 21, 2013.

Even now the evidence is considered inconclusive, and the charge is extremely controversial. Damascus has rejected the allegations, claiming that the attack from Ghouta was carried out by militants in a secret operation.

“US President Barack Obama has decided to use force, announced his decision publicly and said that we will act, we will do what we must do to respond to this gross violation of international law,” said Kerry on Thursday.

“Now we are moving towards that time when … Prime Minister [at that time] David Cameron was brought to Parliament .. and tried to obtain a vote to approve the involvement of the British. Well, the Parliament voted NO “.

Members of the British Parliament voted at that time 285 to 272, to withdraw support for US air strikes, sending diplomatic shock waves across the Atlantic.

Many American congressmen have expressed their reluctance to approve the use of US force in Syria.

“While we informed the Congress, many of them said, ‘Well, you must come to us. You have to go through the constitutional process to get our permission to do something, ‘ “Kerry recalled.

In addition, Kerry acknowledged that the perception that Obama stepped back while being under pressure, has affected the credibility of the US administration both at home and abroad.

Since then it has been quite difficult for Obama to persuade US allies that his administration can maintain a credible threat on the use of force in response to other attacks occurring around the globe.

In September 2014, Obama authorized a campaign of airstrikes against the Islamic State’s positions in Syria. The campaign has been criticized by the Russians as too weak to destroy the jihadist group, so Moscow decided to intervene, mainly to support the Syrian President Assad against armed rebels supported by the US.

Moscow’s initiative eventually resulted in an almost total removal of the Americans from the Middle East.