Russia Urges Assad To Cede Control Of His Chemical Weapons
Shortly before 1:30 p.m. ET, The Associated Press reported that the State Department said the U.S. will take a "hard look" at the Russian proposal.
The Obama administration says it has evidence that chemical weapons were used last month to kill more than 1,400 people in an attack near Damascus and that elements of the Assad regime were to blame. Assad has denied responsibility, most recently in an interview over the weekend with CBS News' Charlie Rose.
A German newspaper reported Saturday that German intelligence services picked up communications indicating Assad "did not personally order last month's chemical weapons attack ... and blocked numerous requests from his military commanders to use chemical weapons against regime opponents in recent months."
President Obama will have more to say about his administration's case during interviews with U.S. news networks Monday afternoon. He's also due to address the nation Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET.
The president and his aides have been pushing for support from Congress and the international community for strikes aimed at military targets inside Syria. If there's no military response, Assad will use chemical weapons "again and again and again and it's only a matter of time before [they] fall into the hands of non-state actors" such as al-Qaida, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power told NPR on Monday.
Many U.S. lawmakers, though, make the case that the crisis in Syria does not pose a national security threat to the U.S. and that many of the groups battling the Assad regime are linked to terrorist organizations or other enemies of the U.S.
Russia is a long-time supporter of the Assad regime, to which it sells weapons. Russia also has a naval base on Syria's Mediterranean Coast.