Kerry: Syria Chemical Weapons Deal ‘Improved’ Assad’s Position

Underscoring just how reluctantly the United States was dragged into accepting Syrian chemical weapons disarmament as opposed to a unilateral American invasion, Secretary of State John Kerry is the latest to gripe about the deal adding “legitimacy” to President Bashar Assad’s government.

Kerry went on to say that the deal “improved his position a little bit,” but that Assad is still not winning the ongoing Syrian Civil War and the US is confident that the stalemate remains.

Absent in the grousing about the chemical weapons deal is that Kerry himself was the one that floated the idea publicly, backpedaling furiously before Syria accepted the deal.

At the time, Kerry’s comments were supposed to be another push to war, proving that Syria was being given ample opportunity to avoid American invasion and had refused. It turned out they accepted the deal, however, and Kerry and others have been lamenting their failure to sell the war ever since.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.