The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Monday that he expects U.S. will be involved in some sort of military response to the suspected use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.
Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee said during an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show that he talked with Obama administration officials Sunday night and said he thinks that the White House is working to rally support among the nation’s NATO allies for some sort of “surgical” and “proportional” military response.
“I do think action is going to occur,” Mr. Corker said.
Mr. Corker said that he thinks the U.S. will continue to support vetted moderate opposition forces on the ground and that he hopes the administration will seek authorization for a response when lawmakers return to Washington next week from their summer break.
“Certainly a red line for us has been the use of chemicals against people,” Mr. Corker said. “That has occurred. We need obviously to respond to that, but I don’t want us to change our overall policy.”
A senior White House officials has said that there was “very little doubt” that Syrian President Bashar Asssad used chemical weapons last week on his own people.
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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