By David Martosko President Barack Obama has revealed that has hasn't ruled out abandoning an attack on Syria, and that he has been secretly discussing a non-military resolution to the Syrian crisis with Russian President Vladimir Putin 'for quite some time.' 'We will pursue this diplomatic track,' Obama told Fox News anchor Chris Wallace. 'I fervently hope that this can be resolved in a non-military way.' But 'it's fair to say that I haven't decided' what to do if Congress fails to authorize a military strike against the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, he conceded to NBC News' Savannah Guthrie.
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'We will pursue this diplomatic track,' Obama told Fox News
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'I haven't decided' what to do if Congress refuses to endorse military action, he told NBC
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He would 'absolutely' call off a military strike, Obama said on ABC, if Bashar al-Assad were to credibly give up his chemical weapons
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Talk of a Russsia-brokered deal is 'the continuation of conversations I've had with President Putin for quite some time,' Obama told PBS
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Secretary of State John Kerry accidentally floated the idea of an agreement in London, later saying he wasn't serious
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Russia's and Syria's foreign ministers both leaped into the opening, saying they would support such an arrangement if it would prevent war
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The White House hosted at lest 70 members of Congress on Monday, arguing that the threat of military force will keep Assad in negotiations
The comments came as part of an unprecedented series of sit-down television interviews Monday, in which @placeholder was expected to make the the case for military intervention in Syria but instead seemed to cleave to a softer approach.