(26 Aug 2013) STATE DEPARTMENT TV - AP CLIENTS ONLY
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1. Wide of US Secretary of State John Kerry walking into briefing room
2. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, US Secretary of State:
"What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any code of morality. Let me be clear: the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard it is inexcusable and despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured, it is undeniable. The meaning of this attack goes beyond the conflict in Syria itself and that conflict has already brought so much terrible suffering. This is about the large scale indiscriminate use of weapons that the civilised world long ago decided must never be used at all - a conviction shared even by countries that agree on little else."
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3. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, US Secretary of State:
"I spoke on Thursday with Syrian Foreign Minister Moallem, and I made it very clear to him that if the regime, as he argued, had nothing to hide, then their response should be immediate, immediate transparency, immediate access, not shelling. Their response needed to be unrestricted and immediate access. Failure to permit that, I told him, would tell its own story. Instead, for five days, the Syrian regime refused to allow the UN investigators access to the site of the attack that would allegedly exonerate them. Instead, it attacked the area further, shelling it and systemically destroying evidence. That is not the behaviour of a government that has nothing to hide. That is not the action of a regime eager to prove to the world that it had not used chemical weapons. In fact, the regime's belated decision to allow access is too late, and it's too late to be credible. Today's reports of an attack on the UN investigators - together with the continued shelling of these very neighbourhoods - only further weakens the regime's credibility."
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4. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, US Secretary of State:
"And with our own eyes, we have all of us become witnesses. We have additional information about this attack, and that information is being compiled and reviewed together with our partners, and we will provide that information in the days ahead."
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5. SOUNDBITE (English) John Kerry, US Secretary of State:
"But make no mistake: President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world's most heinous weapons against the world's most vulnerable people. Nothing today is more serious, and nothing is receiving more serious scrutiny. Thank you."
6. Kerry leaving the briefing room
STORYLINE:
Secretary of State John Kerry declared on Monday that there was "undeniable" evidence of a large-scale chemical weapons attack in Syria, toughening the Obama administration's criticism of President Bashar Assad's regime and outlining a justification for possible US military action.
Kerry, speaking to reporters at the State Department, said last week's attack was a "moral obscenity" that "should shock the conscience" of the world.
"The indiscriminate slaughter of civilians, the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity. By any standard, it is inexcusable and despite the excuses and equivocations that some have manufactured it is undeniable," said Kerry, the highest-ranking US official to confirm the attack in the Damascus suburbs that activists say killed hundreds of people.
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