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| Kerry Says Syria Should Hand Over All Chemical Arms | Kerry Says Syria Should Hand Over All Chemical Arms |
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| LONDON — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday that if President Bashar al-Assad wants to avert an attack on Syria, he should hand over all of his chemical weapons within one week. | LONDON — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday that if President Bashar al-Assad wants to avert an attack on Syria, he should hand over all of his chemical weapons within one week. |
| Asked if there were steps the Syrian president could take to avert an American-led attack, Mr. Kerry said: “Sure, he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week — turn it over, all of it, without delay and allow the full and total accounting.” | Asked if there were steps the Syrian president could take to avert an American-led attack, Mr. Kerry said: “Sure, he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week — turn it over, all of it, without delay and allow the full and total accounting.” |
| But Mr. Kerry also said that he did not believe Mr. Assad would take such action and expressed doubt whether it was even feasible as a civil war rages in Syria. | But Mr. Kerry also said that he did not believe Mr. Assad would take such action and expressed doubt whether it was even feasible as a civil war rages in Syria. |
| “But he isn’t about to do it, and it can’t be done,” Mr. Kerry added. | “But he isn’t about to do it, and it can’t be done,” Mr. Kerry added. |
| Mr. Kerry’s remarks, which were made in a joint news conference with William Hague, the British foreign secretary, were the latest in a war of words between the Syrian leader and the Obama administration. | Mr. Kerry’s remarks, which were made in a joint news conference with William Hague, the British foreign secretary, were the latest in a war of words between the Syrian leader and the Obama administration. |
| Mr. Kerry’s suggestion that Mr. Assad turn over his chemical weapons stocks appeared to be more of a debating point than a serious ultimatum. | |
| It was made in response to a question, not presented as part of Mr. Kerry’s opening remarks, and the secretary of state himself questioned whether it could be accomplished. | |
| Obama administration officials have discussed the idea of presenting Mr. Assad with an ultimatum. But officials are wary of giving the Syrian leader an opportunity to play for time and carrying out inspections to make sure the Syrian government has not retained hidden stocks of poison gas as fighting rages appeared to be a near impossibility. | |
| In other comments, Mr. Kerry said that Mr. Assad’s claims that he was not responsible for the chemical attack on August 21 which provoked an international crisis over whether to launch punitive military strikes were not credible because Syria’s arsenal of poison gas is tightly controlled. | In other comments, Mr. Kerry said that Mr. Assad’s claims that he was not responsible for the chemical attack on August 21 which provoked an international crisis over whether to launch punitive military strikes were not credible because Syria’s arsenal of poison gas is tightly controlled. |
| Mr. Kerry said that three senior officials in the Syrian government have had control over the nation’s chemical weapons stocks and their use: Mr. Assad, his brother Maher and a senior general. | |
| Mr. Kerry said that “high-level” members of the regime gave the instructions to use chemical weapons in the August 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus “with the results going directly to president Assad.” | |
| When asked if the White House would consider making public additional intelligence to counter Mr. Assad’s claims that he had nothing to do with the attack, such as physical samples that documented the use of sarin gas produced by the Syrian government, Mr. Kerry said that he did not know what President Obama would decide. | |
| But he asserted that the Obama administration had already made available copious amounts of intelligence and the case against Mr. Assad was airtight. | |
| In a discussion on Sunday with Charlie Rose, an American television interviewer, Mr. Assad asserted that Mr. Kerry had lied about the intelligence. Mr. Kerry appeared unruffled by that allegation and recalled that his own experience in dealing with Mr. Assad as a senator had convinced him that the Syrian leader could not be trusted. | |
| In early 2009, Mr. Kerry met with Mr. Assad in Damascus to explore the possibility of improving relations between the United States and Syria. Mr. Kerry said that he confronted Mr. Assad about intelligence the United States had confirmed that Syria had transferred Scud missiles to Hezbollah. | |
| Mr. Kerry said that Mr. Assad had “denied it to my face,” adding “this is a man without credibility.” |