President Barack Obama said Saturday he was willing to give diplomacy a chance to help resolve the Syrian crisis, but warned the military option was still on the table.
President Barack Obama said Saturday he was willing to give diplomacy a chance to help resolve the Syrian crisis, but warned the military option was still on the table.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov were engaged in a third day of talks following Moscow's surprise initiative to finalize an agreement on eliminating Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons.
"We are not just going to take Russia and Assad's word for it. We need to see concrete actions to demonstrate that Assad is serious about giving up his chemical weapons," Obama said in his weekly address.
"And since this plan emerged only with a credible threat of US military action, we will maintain our military posture in the region to keep the pressure on the Assad regime."
The Russian plan has led Obama to put on hold planned military strikes in response to the alleged chemical attack.
"We're making it clear that this can't be a stalling tactic," Obama said of the discussions in Geneva.
"Any agreement needs to verify that the Assad regime and Russia are keeping their commitments: that means working to turn Syria's chemical weapons over to international control and ultimately destroying them," Obama said.
"This would allow us to achieve our goal -- deterring the Syrian regime from using chemical weapons, degrading their ability to use them, and making it clear to the world that we won't tolerate their use."
"We'll keep working with the international community to see that Assad gives up his chemical weapons so that they can be destroyed," the president said.
"We will continue rallying support from allies around the world who agree on the need for action to deter the use of chemical weapons in Syria.
"And if current discussions produce a serious plan, I'm prepared to move forward with it."
Invoking a "duty to preserve a world free from the fear of chemical weapons for our children," Obama repeated his call for an international response.
