Update below
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could avoid a military strike by immediately handing over all of the country's chemical weapons. But the State Department later clarified that Kerry was making a "rhetorical argument," not a genuine offer.
Asked by a reporter whether there was anything the Assad regime could do to stop an American-led attack, 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 [of it]. But he isn't about to do it, and it can't be done."
"Secretary Kerry was making a rhetorical argument about the impossibility and unlikelihood of Assad turning over chemical weapons he has denied he used," said a State Department spokesperson in a statement later.
"His point was that this brutal dictator with a history of playing fast and loose with the facts cannot be trusted to turn over chemical weapons, otherwise he would have done so long ago. That's why the world faces this moment."
The mixed message adds to the confusion over whether the Obama administration is seeking a diplomatic or military solution to the crisis in Syria following the August 21 chemical weapons attack the administration concluded was ordered by the Assad regime. What seemed like inevitable strikes against Syria in the days following the chemical weapons attack has become ambiguous following Obama's August 31 remarks where he said the U.S. "should" strike Syria, but that he would also seek congressional approval — something that has been elusive thus far.
However, if there is any ambiguity in avoiding military strikes, Russia appears poised to take that route. Russia's Foreign Ministry posted to its official Twitter account Monday that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claims multiple states have worked together to make "a political settlement in Syria possible."
Update: Following Kerry's so-called "rhetorical argument," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced a plan for Syria to surrender its chemical weapons to international inspectors. The White House said Monday afternoon that it was open to the possibility of a surrender. A skeptical President Obama said in an interview with NBC that, "I think you have to take it with a grain of salt initially."
Obama noted that the move is "a potentially positive development," but that "we have to be skeptical because this is not how we have seen them operate over the last couple of years."
Syria has embraced the proposal and France said it would draft a U.N. Security Council resolution to move forward with the plan.
