President Obama said Tuesday the administration does not make decisions based on the "perceived" crossing of the red line established by his administration for military intervention in Syria.
Obama, speaking in a joint press conference with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, said that he cannot "organize international coalitions around perceived":
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I would note, not to answer the question that you lobbed over to President Park, that you suggested even in your question a perceived crossing of a red line. The operative word there, I guess, Steven, is "perceived." And what I’ve said is that we have evidence that there has been the use of chemical weapons inside of Syria, but I don't make decisions based on perceived, and I can't organize international coalitions around perceived. We’ve tried that in the past, by the way, and it didn't work out well. So we want to make sure that, you know, we have the best an access possible. We want to make sure that we are acting deliberately. But I would just point out that -- point out that there have been self-instances during the course of my presidency where I said I was going to do something, and it ended up getting done. And there were times when there were folks on the sidelines wondering why hasn't it happened yet and what's going on and why didn't it go on tomorrow. But in the end whether it's Bin Laden or Gaddafi, if we say we're taking a position, I would think at this point the international community has a pretty good sense that we typically follow through on our commitments.
Administration officials announced two weeks ago that U.S. intelligence officials believe the Assad regime used the chemical agent sarin against Syrians.
Since that disclosure, a number of prominent lawmakers including Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) have said the intelligence crosses the administration's red line.