President Barack Obama makes a statement to reporters as he meets with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Friday, Sept. 27, 2013.
President Barack Obama on Friday heralded the international agreement requiring Syria to give up its chemical weapons as a “potentially huge victory for the international community.”
Speaking after an Oval Office meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Obama said the United Nations Security Council deal would not have happened without the credible threat of American military action, but that he “always expressed a preference for resolving this diplomatically.”
Obama cautioned that the deal would have to be properly enforced, but he called it a step toward “an international community that is not just gathering to talk, but also is able to take concerted action on behalf of enforcing international norms.”