The United States Administration believes that the stockpiles of chemical weapons in Syria are under control of the Syrian regime

The United States Administration declared that based on the information that it has – it believes that the stockpiles of chemical weapons in Syria are under control of the Syrian regime, the White House press secretary Jay Carney said early afternoon on Friday.

“Because of that, Assad is responsible for the disposition of those chemical weapons and it is his responsibility first and foremost not to use them or to transport them to terrorist groups, but to secure them and make sure they aren’t used by anyone else.”

Fielding a question from the media during the afternoon presser, Carney said that he could not speculate on what action if any Obama will pursue against Assad, but said “as a general principal the United States retains the ability to act unilaterally.”

“That’s all I can really say about it. That’s our assessment at this time,” said Carney, adding that the Obama administration is working with allies and partners, including the United Nations and Sthe yrian opposition, to gather credible facts to corroborate earlier reports.

Carney noted that the administration has a number of options in regards to handling reports claiming that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons, and those routes include but are not exclusive to using military force.

Obama spoke to reporters Friday hours later about the allegations during a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah in the Oval Office, calling the developments a “game changer” in terms of how the US might respond.