AUBURN, N.Y.
(AP) -- President Barack Obama says a possible chemical weapons attack
in Syria this week is a "big event of grave concern" that has hastened
the timeframe for determining a U.S. response.
"This is something that is going to require America's attention," Obama said during an interview broadcast Friday.
However,
the president said the notion that the U.S. alone can end Syria's
bloody civil war is "overstated" and made clear he would seek
international support before taking large-scale action.
"If
the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a U.N. mandate and
without clear evidence that can be presented, then there are questions
in terms of whether international law supports it, do we have the
coalition to make it work," he said in the interview on CNN's "New Day"
show. "Those are considerations that we have to take into account."
Obama's
comments on Syria were his first since Wednesday's alleged chemical
weapons attack on the eastern suburbs of Damascus that killed at least
100 people. While he appeared to signal some greater urgency for a U.S.
response, his comments were largely in line with his previous statements
throughout the two-year conflict.
The
president said the U.S. is still seeking conclusive evidence that
chemical weapons were used this week. Such actions, he said, would be
troubling and detrimental to "some core national interests that the
United States has, both in terms of us making sure that weapons of mass
destruction are not proliferating, as well as needing to protect our
allies, our bases in the region."
Wednesday's
attack came as a United Nations team was on the ground in Syria
investigating earlier chemical weapons use. Obama has warned that
deployment of the deadly gases would cross a "red line," but the U.S.
response to the confirmed attacks earlier this year has been minimal.
That
has opened Obama up to fierce criticism, both in the U.S. and abroad.
Among the critics is Arizona's Republican Sen. John McCain, who says
America's credibility has been damaged because Obama has not taken more
forceful action to stop the violence. McCain ran against Obama for
president in 2008.
The president pushed back
at those assertions in the interview aired Friday, saying that while the
U.S. remains "the one indispensable nation," that does not mean the
country should get involved everywhere immediately.
"Well,
you know, I am sympathetic to Sen. McCain's passion for helping people
work through what is an extraordinarily difficult and heartbreaking
situation, both in Syria and in Egypt," he said.
"Sometimes
what we've seen is that folks will call for immediate action, jumping
into stuff, that does not turn out well," he said. "We have to think
through strategically what's going to be in our long-term national
interests, even as we work cooperatively internationally to do
everything we can to put pressure on those who would kill innocent
civilians."
The U.S. has called on Syria to
allow the U.N. team currently on the ground to investigate this most
recent attack. However, the president was pessimistic about those
prospects, saying, "We don't expect cooperation, given their past
history."
More than 100,000 people have been
killed in Syria during more than two years of clashes between forces
loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad and opposition fighters seeking
to overthrow his regime. The U.S. has long called for Assad to go and
has sent humanitarian aid to the rebels, but those steps have failed to
push the Syrian leader from power.
After the
earlier chemical weapons attacks, Obama did approve the shipment of
small weapons and ammunition to the Syrian rebels, but there is little
sign that the equipment has arrived.
Obama
addressed the deepening crisis in Syria from central New York, where he
is on a two-day bus tour promoting policies to make college more
affordable.
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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC
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