Any US military attack on Syria would be “unbelievably small,’’ Secretary of State John Kerry insisted Monday as opposition to the planned American intervention mounted.
“We’re not going to war. We will not have people at risk in that way,’’ Kerry told reporters in London after meeting with the foreign secretary of Britain, whose government has already refused to support a strike.
“We will be able to hold [Syrian dictator] Bashar Assad accountable without engaging in troops on the ground or any other prolonged kind of effort in a very limited, very targeted, very short-term effort that degrades his capacity to deliver chemical weapons without assuming responsibility for Syria’s civil war,’’ Kerry said.
“That is exactly what we’re talking about doing — [an] unbelievably small, limited kind of effort.”
Kerry was immediately blasted by members of Congress who back the administration’s push for at least air raids in retaliation for Syria’s deadly use of chemical weapons on its own people last month.
“Kerry says #Syria strike would be ‘unbelievably small’ — that is unbelievably unhelpful,” tweeted Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
President Obama will get the chance to explain his administration’s stance to the American public in a special televised address Tuesday night.
The developments came as Russia did an about-face Monday and urged rogue ally Syria to hand over its chemical arsenal to be destroyed.
Just last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Obama of “lying’’ about Syria’s use of chemical warfare.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told reporters that Syria “welcomes” having its arsenal monitored — but didn’t offer any more details or address whether it would allow its chemical weapons to be destroyed.
Earlier in the day, Kerry said Assad would never agree to such a move.
“Sure, he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week — turn it over, all of it without delay and allow the full and total accounting,’’ Kerry said.
“But he isn’t about to do it.”
The White House has accused Assad’s government of launching a chemical attack last month on a rebel stronghold that killed more than 1,400, including more than 400 children.
But while a new national poll shows that eight in 10 Americans believe Assad used chemical weapons, a CNN/ORC International poll released Monday shows that about seven in 10 respondents don’t support a retaliatory strike.
Assad, in an interview aired Monday on “CBS This Morning,’’ warned that a US strike could lead to attacks on American military bases.
“Not necessarily through the [Syrian] government — the government is not the only player in this region,’’ Assad said ominously.
Additional reporting by S.A. Miller