After strike deal on Syria, Kerry says him calling it impossible was ‘diplomacy’

Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday, after reaching a tentative agreement with Russia to disarm Syria of chemical weapons, that his earlier statement about the impossibility of such a plan was in fact “the language of diplomacy.”

“I purposefully made the statements,” Kerry said in Geneva, Switzerland, after reaching the framework of an agreement with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “And I did indeed say it was impossible and [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad] won’t do it, even as I hoped it would be possible and wanted him to do it. And the language of diplomacy sometimes requires that you put things to the test, and we did.”

The comments at a post-agreement press conference were the latest from the Obama administration in an attempt to explain Kerry’s comments Monday in London, after President Obama said Aug. 31 the United States should launch a punitive military strike against the Assad regime for using chemicals weapons, but that he would first seek congressional approval.

The State Department sought to lessen the potential impact of Kerry’s comments by calling them a “rhetorical” response to a hypothetical question and not “a proposal.” But their importance became more clear as the day progressed.

However, a diplomatic solution, regardless of its beginnings, appears to have come at a good time for Obama, considering polls and surveys show Congress, the American public and other world leaders have very limited support for a strike, which would likely consist missiles launched from U.S. ships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.

Kerry also said Saturday that he and Lavrov had been talking for three days before his London comments.

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