Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said no decision had been reached Thursday by President Trump about a strike on Syria and that the U.S. was still waiting to see the evidence of a chemical attack.
“We have not yet made any decision to launch military attacks into Syria,” Mattis said in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee. “Today, our president did say that he has not made a decision and I will tell you that when I leave here I will go to a meeting where the National Security Council will be meeting on this, and we will take forward the various options to the president.”
He said the administration is still awaiting evidence that may depend on Syria allowing a team of inspectors into the country to survey the Damascus suburb where the alleged attack last weekend killed dozens, including children.
That process that could take days, and any findings will not determine who committed an attack, he said.
“We are not engaged on the ground there, so I cannot tell you that we have evidence, though we certainly had a lot of media and social media indicators that either chlorine or sarin were used,” he said. “I believe there was a chemical attack. We’re looking for the actual evidence.”
Mattis’ careful statements are in contrast to Trump’s, who has referred to “Animal Assad” in tweets this week when assigning blame for the strike.
Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018
Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and “smart!” You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 11, 2018
The U.S. hopes to get investigators with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons into Syria “within the week” but has faced opposition from the Syrian regime as well as Russia in the United Nations, Mattis said.
“We will not know from this investigating team that goes in, if we can get them in, if the regime will let them in, we will not know who did it,” he said. “They can only say that they found evidence or did not, and each day that goes by as you know it is a non-persistent gas so it becomes more and more difficult to confirm. So that is where we are at right now.”
