Syria crisis: Obama says world's credibility on the line

President Barack Obama has said the credibility of the US, its Congress and the international community is on the line over their response to Syria's alleged use of chemical weapons. Mr Obama is trying to build support in the US for punitive military action against the Syrian government. Speaking in Sweden, he said the world should stick to its own "red line" against the use of chemical weapons. The US Congress will vote next week on whether to support his proposed action. The French parliament is currently debating military action but will not vote on it. Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said earlier that there was no point in asking MPs to vote on something that might not take place. The UK parliament voted last month against taking part in any strikes. 'World's red line' The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is accused of using chemical weapons against civilians on several occasions during the 30-month conflict, most recently on a large scale in an attack on 21 August on the outskirts of Damascus. The US has put the death toll from that incident at 1,429 - though other countries and organisations have given lower figures - and says all the evidence implicates government forces. President Assad has said such an attack would have been "illogical" because UN chemical weapons experts were visiting Damascus at the time. On Tuesday evening, members of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations agreed a draft resolution to go before Congress which specified that any operation would be "limited and tailored" and prohibit the use of any ground forces. In Stockholm, Mr Obama was asked if he believed asking Congress to vote - which he was not constitutionally obliged to do - had put his credibility at stake. "My credibility is not on the line. The international community's credibility is on the line," he replied. "America and Congress's credibility is on the line, because we give lip-service to the notion that these international norms are important." Mr Obama, who has previously said that the use of chemical weapons would cross a "red line", told reporters that it was not him who set this line but the world, "when governments representing 98% of the world's population said the use of chemical weapons are abhorrent and passed a treaty forbidding their use even when countries are engaged in war". "Congress set a red line when it ratified that treaty," he added. He said he believed Congress would give its backing, because it recognised that the world would become "less safe" if chemical weapons were allowed to become the norm. But he also stressed that as commander-in-chief, he had the right to act in his country's national interest.