https://youtube.com/watch?v=80XmnHOwGWs
The Obama administration might consider a plan involving an ultimatum to Syrian president Bashar Assad as a diplomatic alternative to U.S. military action, according to New York Times chief Washington correspondent David Sanger. Assad would be presented with a 45-day window to sign a chemical-weapons ban in order to avoid a missile strikes.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you see the president end up having to go some kind of version of that route,” Sanger said on Morning Joe today. “The idea was to basically put a diplomatic action and a test ahead of Assad before the U.S., and before the president, had an authorization for a strike.”
Host Joe Scarborough added that the 45-day window would also allow the U.S. “to actually come up with” an effective military plan if it was ultimately necessary.
A version of this plan comes from a resolution offered by Democratic senators Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, not the Senate Foreign Relation Committee’s resolution that passed earlier this week.