Official: Geneva accords make possible U.S. strike against Syria even more odious

(Interfax – September 16, 2013) Possible U.S. military intervention in the Syrian conflict will look even more odious in the context of the agreement to subject Syrian chemical weapons to international monitoring, State Duma International Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov wrote on Twitter.

“Kerry is reassuring Netanyahu: the U.S. keeps its finger on the trigger! But a strike against Syria after the Geneva [meeting] would look even more odious than before,” he wrote.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday that the United States did not abandon the idea of using military force as a possible way of putting pressure on Damascus if the latter failed to submit to the U.S.-Russian agreement concerning Syrian chemical weapons.

Kerry said the United States remains prepared to launch a unilateral strike if Syria fails to meet its commitments.

“This will only be as effective as its implementation will be, and President Obama has made it clear that in order to accomplish that, the threat of force remains,” Kerry said. “The threat of force is real.”

“We cannot have hollow words in the conduct of international affairs, because that affects all other issues,” he told a press conference with another speaker, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The egregious use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime against innocent men, women, children, their own citizens, all indiscriminately murdered in the dead of night is unacceptable,” Kerry said.

He noted that the U.S.-Russian agreement concerning Syria’s chemical weapons was a chance to strip the Syrian regime of all types of chemical armaments.