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ABC "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" - Transcript - Syria


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And joining us now, the man who made America's case to the world for a military strike, Secretary of State John Kerry. Thank you for joining us, Mr. Secretary.








KERRY: I don't contemplate that, George.






And I think if each congress -- member of congress looks at this case carefully, as they will, and makes judgments about what has happened, and then measured it against the stakes for our ally, Israel, against our interests with respect to Iran, our interests with respect to Hezbollah, with respect to North Korea, nonproliferation, enforcement of an almost 100-year-old prohibition on chemical weapons.

As America weighs, as the congress weighs the potential damage to America's credibility in the world, I think the members of congress will choose to do the right thing, and so does the president.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But if I hear you correctly, you're saying the president is going to act no matter what. Meanwhile--

KERRY: No, I said he has the right to act--


KERRY: -- George, we are not going to lose this vote. The president of the United States is committed to securing the unity of purpose that he believes strengthens America. And I believe the congress will see that that's the responsible thing to do here.

STEPHANOPOULOS: They are already declaring victory in Syria this morning, the Assad regime.

KERRY: Assad has said a lot of things in the course of this. I think the more he stands up and crows, the more he will help this decision to be made correctly.

I'm very, very confident that, as this case is made to people, the Congress will recognize, and the American people will come to see, the president is talking about a military action geared to deter the use of chemical weapons, and geared to diminish Assad's capacity, to degrade his capacity to be able to carry out those strikes.

The president is not talking about taking over this civil war. The president is not talking about boots on the ground. But the president is talking about doing something that upholds this international norm and I think makes it clear to Assad that much worse could happen if he were to continue to use these weapons.

The alternative for the Congress and for the world is that you grant Assad and people like him complete impunity, and you totally tear down the entire international process of accountability that has been built up over all these years. I do not believe members of Congress or other countries believe that's in anybody's interest.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Mr. Secretary, is there anything Assad can do now to avoid a strike?

What if he turned over his stockpile of chemical weapons?

KERRY: We are obviously looking hard at what we can do to try to diplomatically move in ways that could secure the weapons. Russia and others may be able to play a role in that. There are a number of different proposals on the table.

But that doesn't mean the United States shouldn't proceed to make it clear that the authorization will be given to the president in order to guarantee that we do not have more chemical attacks similar to the one that we saw the other day, and also recognizing that this is one of many attacks that Assad is now engaged in.

I think that the evidence here is so clear and so powerful, that it provides us with a number of different options, but the most important one to have authority for right now is the ability to take this strike.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You say that the evidence is clear, but President Putin and Russia calling it utter nonsense that President Assad would authorize this kind of a chemical strike, the president heading to Russia this week.

Your response to President Putin?

KERRY: Well, I would -- we've offered the -- we've offered the Russians previously to have a briefing on this. In fact, we sent people over to Russia who have provided evidence we had with respect to the last ones. And they chose, I literally mean chose, not to believe it or to at least acknowledge publicly.

I think this evidence is going to be overwhelming. If the president of Russia chooses yet again to ignore it, that's his choice.

But the United States and our friends need to make the decisions we need to make based on the rational presentation of that evidence. We will lay it out there for everybody to judge. We have actually gone overboard in this case, George, to declassify certain things, to put things out there that wouldn't normally be available in terms of intelligence. And I think it's going to be very, very hard for anybody ultimately to ignore it.

My hope is that the Russians will recognize that Assad crossed a line here. We are working very closely with the Russians on the Geneva negotiation potential, and my hope is they would rededicate themselves to that, and perhaps join us in an effort at the United Nations to hold Assad accountable.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, sir, one of the other challenges you're facing in Congress is from those who believe that the president's strategy does not go far enough.

Senators McCain and Graham put out a statement yesterday, where they say, "We cannot in good conscience support isolated military strikes in Syria that are not part of an overall strategy that can change the momentum on the battlefield, achieve the president's stated goal of Assad's removal from power and bring an end to this conflict."

Why not go that far?

KERRY: Well, I have talked to John McCain and Lindsey Graham. I talked to Lindsey yesterday and I -- they're good friends of mine, and I respect them both. And I am convinced that we can find common ground here with them and others so that they're convinced that the strategy that is in place will in fact help the opposition, that there will be additional pressure and, at the same time, that this is not just an isolated pinprick, but something that can have a profound impact on Assad's ability to use these weapons, which he has been using and will use again if we don't do something about it.

And I think they will come to that conclusion. I don't think they will want to vote, ultimately, to put Israel at risk and not to enforce the message with respect to other interests in the world.

But most importantly, I believe they can be and will be satisfied that a strategy is in place in order to help the opposition and to change the dynamics of what is happening in Syria.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And finally, sir, what do you say to so many Americans who are worried that we're going to get sucked into a wider war?

KERRY: We -- this is not Iraq; this is not Afghanistan. There is nothing similar in what the president is contemplating. We do not need to do that in this case because there are others who are willing to fight, others who are engaged.

And the issue here is not whether we will go and do it with them; it's whether we will support them adequately in their efforts to do it.

I think the president has drawn a very, very bright line with respect to that. He has no intention, zero intention of putting boots on the ground. And this military action that he is seeking approval for is directed at the upholding of the international norm on the prohibition of chemical weapons.

It's not focused on the larger battlefield and interests in the regime. The political effort is totally focused on getting Assad out through the Geneva process, on supporting the opposition, and the president will continue to do that.


KERRY: Thank you.


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