John Kerry: US has proof that sarin gas used in Syria
John Kerry, the American secretary of state, has said that the United States now has evidence of sarin gas use in Syria and said "the case gets stronger by the day" for a military attack.
Mr Kerry said he was confident that Congress will give Mr Obama its backing for an attack against Syria, but he also said the president has authority to act on his own if Congress doesn't give its approval. Photo: AP
By Harriet Alexander, and agencies
3:48PM BST 01 Sep 2013
President Bashar al-Assad, he said, "has now joined the list of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein" in deploying chemical weapons against his population.
A day after President Barack Obama stepped back from his threat to launch an attack, Mr Kerry said in a series of interviews on the Sunday news shows that the administration had learnt of the sarin use within the past 24 hours through samples of hair and blood. The samples were provided to Washington by activists in Damascus, independently of the UN investigation.
Mr Kerry also said he was confident that Congress will give Mr Obama its backing for an attack against Syria, but he also said the president has authority to act on his own if Congress doesn't give its approval.
While Mr Kerry stopped short of saying Mr Obama was committed to such a course even if politicians refuse to authorise force, he did tell ABC's This Week that "we are not going to lose this vote."
Congress is scheduled to return from a summer break on Sept. 9.
"This case is going to build stronger and stronger," he said on NBC's Meet the Press.
"The people of America should be celebrating that the president is not acting unilaterally," he said. "The president believes that we are all stronger as a nation when we act together."
He told another TV chat show: "In the last 24 hours, we have learned through samples that were provided to the United States, that have now been tested, from first responders in east Damascus, and hair samples and blood samples have tested positive for signatures of sarin."
He was asked repeatedly what Mr Obama would do in the event that Congress refuses to give its consent, but would only reply "the president has taken his decision."
"I think this is a smart decision by the president. ... He is not trying to create an imperial presidency.
"I believe that in the end, Congress will do what is right."
Administration officials have said that Mr Obama appeared set on ordering a strike until Friday evening. After a long walk around the White House grounds with Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, the president told his aide he had changed his mind.
These officials said on Saturday that Mr Obama initially encountered resistance from his colleagues, in a two-hour session attended by Vice President Joe Biden, Chuck Hagel, the defence secretary; James Clapper, director of national intelligence; CIA Director John Brennan; Susan Rice, the national security adviser, and Lisa Monaco, homeland security adviser.
