BREAKING: Syria ready to join Chemical Convtn/Putin: Chem handover works only if US calls off strike

[Catherina]

11. Obama wants Congress to delay Syria vote

Obama spoke to his French and British counterparts on Tuesday morning | AP Photo

By JENNIFER EPSTEIN and MANU RAJU | 9/10/13 11:06 AM EDT Updated: 9/10/13 2:58 PM EDT

President Barack Obama said Tuesday he wants Congress to delay its efforts to vote on authorizing the use of force in response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons until the round of diplomatic efforts that began this week has a chance to play out.

Obama’s comments came at lunch meetings with senators, which followed the administration’s commitment to engage in talks at the United Nations, and as Syria and Russia quickly responded to the action at the UN with their own statements and requests.

“We’re going to continue to work moving forward on this but keeping pronounced — and I pronounce it now — that the credible threat of our doing something about this attack is going to remain,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) said after the president’s 75-minute meeting with Senate Democrats. Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) added that a Senate vote on the use of force would be delayed until next week, at the earliest.

Efforts to reach an agreement at the UN began Tuesday, as France proposed a Security Council resolution that Russia quickly dismissed as “unacceptable,” before Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Obama to renounce the use of force.

“Certainly, this is all reasonable, it will function and will work out, only if the U.S. and those who support it on this issue pledge to renounce the use of force, because it is difficult to make any country — Syria or any other country in the world — to unilaterally disarm if there is military action against it under consideration,” Putin said Tuesday, according to Russia Today.
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http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/obama-syria-chemical-weapons-proposal-96547.html

STFU Reid. You're one of the problems.

Secretary of State John Kerry told the House Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that while a diplomatic resolution is “ideal,” it won’t indefinitely stall military action. “This cannot be a process of delay,” he said. “This cannot be a process of avoidance.”

And you too Kerry. STFU for a while.