LETTER TO CONGRESS WARNS OF POSSIBLE SYRIAN REGIME USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS

FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

This morning, the White House delivered a letter to several members of Congress on the topic of chemical weapons use in Syria. The letter, which will be made available to you here shortly, states that the U.S. intelligence community assesses with some degree of varying confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin.

As I have said, the intelligence community has been assessing information for some time on this issue, and the decision to reach this conclusion was made in the past 24 hours, and I have been in contact with senior officials in Washington today and most recently the last couple of hours on this issue.

We cannot confirm the origin of these weapons, but we do believe that any use of chemical weapons in Syria would very likely have originated with the Assad regime. As the letter states, the President has made it clear that the use of chemical weapons or the transfer of such weapons to terrorist groups would be unacceptable.

The United States has an obligation to fully investigate – including with all key partners and allies, and through the United Nations – evidence of chemical weapons use in Syria.

Over the past week, I have traveled as you all know to five countries in the Middle East – all of whom have expressed concerns about the deteriorating situation in Syria. And you have asked me on several occasions about chemical weapons use.

As I've said, this is serious business – we need all the facts.