Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday said the U.S. intends to keep military intervention in Syria on the table as the administration seeks to broker a diplomatic agreement with Russia that would place the Assad regime’s chemical weapons under international control.
“Should diplomacy fail, force might be necessary,” Kerry said at a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva, Switzerland.
Russian officials have maintained that for any potential solution to work, the U.S. must first recall its threat of missile strikes in Syria. Kerry and President Barack Obama, however, were adamant this week that the only reason Assad came to the table is because of a U.S. willingness to apply military force.
“This is not a game. It has to be real. it has to be comprehensive. It has to be verifyable. it has to be credible. It has to be timely,” Kerry said at the press conference.
“Only the credible threat of force, and the intervention of President Putin and Russia based on that, has brought the Assad regime to acknowledge for the first time that it has chemical weapons,” he added.
