Of course, their supposed deal, trusting Assad and the Russians didn’t work. Who’d have thought?
Via Daily Caller:
Syrian President Bashar Assad likely held on to a few of his chemical weapons, despite assurances by the U.S. officials that he gave them all up to Russia.
A new confidential report by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, obtained by Foreign Policy, “indicate potentially undeclared chemical weapons-related activities.” The report finds the regime’s explanations for the evidence against it are “not scientifically or technically plausible.”
“We have been very clear to the Assad regime … that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized,” President Barack Obama told reporters in August, 2012. A year later definitive reports confirmed widespread chemical weapons use by the Assad regime against civilians, including sarin gas.
Despite pressure from his advisers, the international community, NATO, and almost every U.S. ally, Obama demurred on his “red line.” Obama instead opted for a Russian-brokered deal with the Assad regime, in which Assad would give up his chemical weapons arsenal.