U.S. envoy to U.N. says Syria's Assad barely dented chemical weapons stockpile
- 11 years ago
ROUGH CUT -- NO REPORTER NARRATION
The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had barely dented his stockpile of chemical weapons in an alleged attack near Damascus last month.
"We assess that although Assad used more chemical weapons on August 21 than he had before, he has barely put a dent in his enormous stockpile," she said at the Center for American Progress think tank in Washington.
"We have exhausted the alternatives" to military action, she said, adding that Assad must have weighed the fact that Russia would back him in the controversy over his alleged use of chemical weapons and it was naive to think Russia would change.
The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had barely dented his stockpile of chemical weapons in an alleged attack near Damascus last month.
"We assess that although Assad used more chemical weapons on August 21 than he had before, he has barely put a dent in his enormous stockpile," she said at the Center for American Progress think tank in Washington.
"We have exhausted the alternatives" to military action, she said, adding that Assad must have weighed the fact that Russia would back him in the controversy over his alleged use of chemical weapons and it was naive to think Russia would change.