President Obama will back a United Nations effort to secure Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles, the White House said Tuesday.
Separately, a group of senators said they were working on a new use-of-force resolution that would only authorize military action if Syria refuses to relinquish its stockpile of chemical weapons to international control.
This development took place a day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) canceled a procedural vote scheduled for Wednesday on authorizing a limited military strike on Syria.
The outline under discussion by the nine lawmakers would require the United Nations to pass a resolution stating that Syrian President Bashar Assad gassed his own people. It would also call on the U.N. to remove all of Syria’s chemical weapons by a certain date.
The resolution would authorize U.S. military action if those goals are not met, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.
