US gathering hard facts on chemical weapons use in Syria:Obama

New York, April 30: The US is gathering hard facts on the use of chemical weapons in Syria to mobilise international opinion against the Assad-regime, President Barack Obama said on Tuesday.

Such evidence would be a "game changer" for American policy on the strife-torn country, he added.

"What we now have is evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria, but we don't know how they were used, when they were used, who used them. We don't have a chain of custody that establishes what exactly happened," Obama said at a crowded White House news conference. He said there is no need to rush things.

"When I am making decisions about America's national security and the potential for taking additional action in response to chemical weapon use, I've got to make sure I've got the facts. That's what the American people would expect," he noted.

"And if we end up rushing to judgment without hard, effective evidence, then we can find ourselves in the position where we can't mobilise the international community to support what we do. There may be objections even among some people in the region who are sympathetic with the opposition if we take action," Obama said.

He said the US and its international partners along with the Syrian opposition are trying to gather more information.

"We will use all the assets and resources that we have at our disposal. We'll work with the neighbouring countries to see whether we can establish a clear baseline of facts. And, we've also called on the UN to investigate," he said.

"If I can establish in a way that not only the United States, but also the international community, feels confident about the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime. That is a game changer because what that portends is potentially even more devastating attacks on civilians and it raises the strong possibility that those chemical weapons can fall into the wrong hands and get disseminated in ways that would threaten US security or the security of our allies," said the US President.

By game changer, Obama said, he meant the US would have to rethink the range of options that are available to it.

"Now we're already invested in trying to bring back a solution inside of Syria. Obviously, there are options that are available to me that are on the shelf right now, that we have not deployed. And, you know, that's a spectrum of options," he said.

"As early as last year I asked the Pentagon, our military, our intelligence officials to prepare for me what options might be available. And I won't go into the details of what those options might be, but, clearly that would be an escalation of the threat to the security of the international community, our allies, and the US," Obama said.

"And that means that there's some options that we might not otherwise exercise that we would strongly consider," he said.

Reiterating that the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad has lost credibility, Obama alleged that he attacked his own people, killed his own people and unleashed a military against innocent civilians.

"And that the only way to bring stability and peace to Syria is going to be for Assad to step down and to move forward on a political transition," he said.

"In pursuit of that strategy we've organised the international community. We are the largest humanitarian donor. We have worked to strengthen the opposition. We have provided non-lethal assistance to the opposition. We have applied sanctions on Syria," Obama said.

"So there are a whole host of steps that we've been taking precisely because even separate from the chemical weapons issue what's happening in Syria is a blemish on the international community generally, and we've gotta make sure that we're doing everything we can to protect the Syrian people," he said.

"In that context, what I've also said is that the use of chemical weapons would be a game changer, not simply for the United States but for the international community," the US President said.

"The reason for that is that we have established international law and international norms that say when you use these kinds of weapons, you have the potential of killing massive numbers of people in the most inhumane way possible. And the proliferation risks are so significant that we don't want that genie out of the box," he said.