Obama Responds to Syrian Gas Attack Reports
WATSON: Welcome back to CNN's AROUND THE WROLD. President Obama is responding for the first time to reports of a chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of people in Syria.</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CO-ANCHOR: The president is being pushed to act after these images. They are just awful, I mean, very hard to watch, of alleged victims that were posted online, many of them children. Syrian rebels, they say that government forces launched a poison gas attack on citizens. Now the government is denying it. And President Obama said any such attack would trigger American intervention. He called the use of chemical weapons a red line. Our Chris Cuomo discussed it in his exclusive interview with the president. Watch.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The red line comment that you made was about a year ago this week. We know there's things that should qualify for crossing that red line.</s>OBAMA: I've got to say this. When we take action, let's take the example of Syria. There are rules of international law. If the U.S. goes in and attacks another country without a U.N. mandate and clear evidence that can be presented then there are questions in terms of whether international law supports it, do we have the coalition to make it work? Those are considerations we have to take into account. This latest event is something we have to look at it. Keep in mind, because I know the American people keep in mind, we still have war going on in Afghanistan. We're still spending tens of billions of dollars in Afghanistan. I will be ending that war by the end of 2014, but every time I go to Walter Reed and visit wounded troops and every time I sign a letter for casualty of that war, I'm reminded that there are costs, and we have to take those into account as we try to work within an international framework to do everything we can to see Assad ousted, somebody who has lost credibility, and try to restore a sense of a democratic process and stability inside of Egypt.</s>CUOMO: It doesn't have to be military. I take your point. When you look at Egypt is an example of that. Senator McConnell is saying it's time to vote on the aid and whether or not that would make a difference.</s>OBAMA: My sense is with Egypt is the aid itself may not reverse what the interim government does. I think most Americans would say we have to be very careful about being seen as aiding and abetting actions that we think where you know contrary to our values and ideals. We're doing a full evaluation of the U.S.-Egyptian relationship. We care deeply about the Egyptian people. There was a space right after Mr. Morsy was removed in which we did a lot of heavy lifting and a lot of diplomatic work to try to encourage the military to move in path of reconciliation. They did not take this opportunity. It was worth it for us to try that despite folks who wanted more immediate black and white action or statements. Ultimately, what we want is a good outcome.</s>CUOMO: Is it safe to say we have a shorter timeframe in terms of what the U.S. can use as a period of decision in Syria and Egypt?</s>OBAMA: Yes.</s>CUOMO: It's a more abbreviated timeframe now?</s>OBAMA: Yes.</s>MALVEAUX: After the break we're going to bring in CNN intelligence and security analyst Robert Baer. We're going to talk more about President Obama and what he said about Egypt and Syria and where do we go from here, up next.</s>WATSON: Stay with us.