Washington D.C. – Ranking Member Eliot Engel, the senior Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the following statement on a proposed United Nations Security Council resolution mandating the destruction of Assad’s chemical weapons.

“The proposed UN Security Council resolution on Syria is a positive development, which I believe lays out a peaceful path for removing deadly chemical weapons from the hands of a tyrant. I was pleased that the international community was able to agree on a chemical weapons inspection, removal, and elimination process giving full and unfettered access to UN weapons inspectors. While I am not under any illusions that this process will be easy to complete in the midst of a war in Syria, we need to give it a chance to succeed.

I am convinced that it was the threat of US military force that got us to this point and paved the way for negotiations in Geneva and New York over the elimination of Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal. That is why it remains crucial that the United States continue to insist that if the Syrian regime fails to play by the rules as outlined by the Security Council, that we are prepared to take swift and forceful action to ensure that Assad can never use these weapons again.”

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