November 30 marks a day globally dedicated to remembering victims of chemical weapons. The Syrian Arab Republic has put forward an initiative to tackle the long-standing justice gap in international law by establishing a specialized global tribunal to address these atrocities.
want to ask them to leave the room. activist groups say at least 70 people including children have been killed, hundreds more injured. innocent victims being shown as treated many with oxygen masks. one doctor told cnn that he s never seen anything like that. cnn s barbara starr is at the pentagon for us. the obama administration heralded the supposed removal of all of assad s chemical weapons in 2013 but we ve seen opponents attacked with chemical weapons including what we see today. investigators are trying to determine what agent was used. so through most of the day we ve seen the statements of world condemnation about all of this, but is there any real change in the works? doubtful. reporter: cnn will not blur out the horror. activists say dozens of civilians killed and hundreds
chairman menendez, to you first. well, look, david, number one is i think i ve heard the president say there are two goals, the immediate goal is the punishment of assad and in this case if you can achieve giving up all of the chemical weapons and production facilities then you ve even gone beyond that for the use of chemical weapons and to send an international message that do not cross that line and also my view strategically sending a message, for example, to the ayatollah in iran, do not think about marching towards nuclear weapons, there is a consequence or to the dictator of north korea. the other one independently that the president has said apart from the specific set of contemplative actions he had he said assad must go. now, that is through hopefully a diplomatic process, part of the when i say this is full of opportunities, if we could not only eliminate the entire chemical weapons program, eliminate all the chemical weapons it might also create a
deal is made and then bashar al assad does not comply and continues, by the way, the slaughter of over 100,000, the problem by the way in syria is not chemical weapons although as horrible as they are, the 100,000 that verizon been killed but suppose that he doesn t comply. they go to the u.p.s. let me give you the quote from mr. lavrov. he said, nothing is said about the use of force or sanctions. so they go to the united nations. it s clear they would veto again. it is now in the hands of russia to decide whether bashar al assad is really complying or not. can i ask you then how might we be in the united states in a different position if the goal if the goal was to prevent him from ever using chemical weapons again? i realize your deal is different. work with me. don t use chemical weapons again how might the situation have been different had the president stayed on course and been bombing by now. of course, the president probably wouldn t have been
chairman menendez, to you first. well, look, david, number one is i think i ve heard the president say there are two goals, the immediate goal is the punishment of assad and in this case if you can achieve giving up all of the chemical weapons and production facilities then you ve even gone beyond that for the use of chemical weapons and to send an international message that do not cross that line and also my view strategically sending a message, for example, to the ayatollah in iran, do not think about marching towards nuclear weapons, there is a consequence or to the dictator of north korea. the other one independently that the president has said apart from the specific set of contemplative actions he had he said assad must go. now, that is through hopefully a diplomatic process, part of the when i say this is full of opportunities, if we could not only eliminate the entire chemical weapons program, eliminate all the chemical weapons it might also create a