Kerry, Hagel address Senate on using force in Syria

US president Barack Obama is not asking the United States to go to war but to authorize him to "degrade and deter" Syria's capability to use chemical weapons, US secretary of state John Kerry said today.

“President Obama is not asking America to go to war,” Mr Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“He is asking for authorization to degrade and deter (Syrian president) Bashar al-Assad’s capacity to use chemical weapons.”

Mr Kerry and secretary of defense Chuck Hagel are addressing the committee in the first hearing on using force in Syria.

Mr Kerry said he did not want the resolution on the use of force in Syria before the US Congress to be cast in a way that would remove the option of putting US “boots on the ground”.

“I don’t want to take off the table an option that might or might not be available to the president of the United States to secure our country,” he said in answer to a question in a Senate hearing.

But Mr Kerry also stressed that “the president has no intention” of putting American troops on the ground to be involved in fighting Syria’s civil war.

Mr Kerry said the world was watching to see what the United States would do. “They want to know if America will rise to this moment and make a difference,” he told senators at the hearing.

Referring to the president’s statement a year ago, the secretary of state said that debate about whether to act against Syria was not about Mr Obama’s “red line” on chemical weapons.

“This debate is about the world’s red line. It’s about humanity’s red line. It’s a red line that anyone with a conscience would want to draw,” he said.

The world can’t ignore the “horror” of Syria’s chemical weapons attack, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez said at the start of the hearing .

“This decision will be among the most difficult any of us will be asked to make,” he said.

Mr Obama is calling for a “prompt” vote on an issue he has tied to US moral authority and global leadership.

The White House is making its case in meetings and congressional hearings

During a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House, Mr Obama called for a prompt vote on Capitol Hill and reiterated that the US plan would be limited in scope and not repeat the long US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “What we are envisioning is something limited. It is something proportional. It will degrade Assad’s capabilities,” Mr Obama said.

“At the same time we have a broader strategy that will allow us to upgrade the capabilities of the opposition,” he added.

John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the US House of Representatives, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor both pledged their support for military action after the meeting.

However UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today that the use of force is only legal when it is in self-defense or with UN Security Council authorization, remarks that appear to question the legality of US plans to strike Syria without UN backing.

He said that if UN inspectors confirm the use of chemical weapons in Syria, the Security Council, which has long been deadlocked on the 2 and half year Syrian civil war, should overcome its differences and take action.

“If confirmed, any use of chemical weapons by anyone under any circumstances will be a serious violation of international law and outrageous war crime,” he told reporters.

“Any perpetrators must be brought to justice. There should be no impunity.”

Meanwhile France said today it will not intervene alone in Syria if the US Congress votes against action, president Francois Hollande said.

“If the decision of (Congress) was not positive, then we would not act alone, but we would not shirk our responsibilities, by supporting the opposition in Syria in such a way that would provide a response,” Mr Hollande said after meeting German president Joachim Gauck.

Reuters