As John Kerry wraps up his tenure as secretary of state, he seems determined to defend his and President Obama’s legacy regarding the conflict in Syria. At this week’s U.S. Institute of Peace’s conference, Judy Woodruff asked Kerry about the perception that U.S. leadership could not be relied on that sprang from President Obama’s decision to defer action after his “red line” regarding Syria’s use of chemical weapons.
Kerry insisted, “President Obama never retreated from his redline. He never changed his mind about his readiness to bomb Assad to make it clear you don’t use chemical weapons—never.”
However, a posting on the state department’s blog this week by Thomas M. Countryman, acting under secretary of state for arms control and international security, calls Kerry’s assertion into question. Countryman, writing to urge the United Nations Security Council to “hold accountable individuals involved in the Syrian chemical weapons program,” said that “an independent international panel established by the UN Security Council in 2015, concluded this year that Syrian Arab Armed Forces used chlorine barrel bombs on civilians in three separate attacks in Syria in 2014 and 2015.” Given that these attacks happened after Syrian leader Bashir Assad’s pledge to rid the country of his chemical weapons ostensibly staved off President Obama’s threatened airstrikes, Countryman’s assertion that “[n]o person, group or nation should ever be allowed to use chemical weapons with impunity” strongly implies that Assad’s repeated use of chemical weapons would trigger President Obama’s “red line” threat.
When asked about this apparent contradiction, State Department spokesman Mark Toner issued the following statement to THE WEEKLY STANDARD:
Then on Thursday, the Treasury Department announced that eighteen senior Syrian regime officials connected with Syria’s weapons of mass destruction program would be targets of U.S. sanctions, an action taken independently from the U.N. sanctions Thomas Countryman mentioned. The press release states that:
When asked why the well-established and repeated chemical weapons violations of the president’s red line did not trigger the previously threatened military response, the State Department declined to add further to Toner’s earlier comments.
For President Obama’s part, the White House issued a statement via Ned Price of the National Security Council on the sanctions announced by the Treasury Department. The statement said in part:
Just as with the State Department, however, the White House was silent on the original “red line” threat of military action. The “significant consequences” are apparently limited to sanctions—the president’s dire threats notwithstanding.
