Obama’s Surprise Press Conference Statement: ‘I Didn’t Set a Red Line’ on Syria
President Barack Obama said a potential invasion of Syria is not about his credibility, nor the “red line” comment he made last year with regards to the use of chemical weapons.
“I didn’t set a red line. The world set a red line,” Obama said Wednesday during a joint press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt in Stockholm.
He went on to refer to the Chemical Weapons Convention, signed by more than 180 countries and ratified by the U.S. Senate.
“The world set a red line when governments representing 98 percent of the world’s population said the use of chemical weapons are abhorrent and passed a treaty preventing their use even when a country is engaged in war,” Obama said. “Congress set a red line when it ratified that treaty. Congress set a red line when it indicated that in a piece of legislation titled the Syria Accountability Act that some of the horrendous things that...