President Barack Obama will address the nation at 9:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday to update the country on the ongoing situation in Syria. When the speech was scheduled it was thought that the president would be making his case for military intervention in to the country after the alleged use of chemical weapons by the government run by Bashar al-Assad but an emerging diplomatic option made President Obama change course, Fox News reports.
Last week President Obama had been pushing for a congressional vote to authorize the use of force against Syria but now administration officials are indicating that tonight's speech will essentially be asking Congress to stall the vote to wait to see if a proposal brought to the United Nations can come to fruition, according to Fox News.
Syria has agreed to hand over their chemical weapons to Russia in order to avoid the possibility of a military strike from the United States. A United Nations resolution is set to be draft by France and introduced to the Security Council setting up the parameters under which Assad would turn over the chemical weapons, according to the New York Times.
In light of the new diplomatic option President Obama is expected to endorse the plan but to urge Congress, and the American people, to continue to put pressure on Syria to make sure that punitive action is taken against Syria and that the current proposal is not a ruse to avoid military action, according to the New York Times.
A recent poll by the New York Times discovered that the overwhelming majority of Americans do not support the United States getting involved in any international conflicts. Only 34 percent of respondents said that the U.S. should take the lead in intervening. When asked specifically about Syria only 14 percent of respondents believed that the Obama administration had clearly explained why intervention was necessary.
A live stream of President Obama's speech can be seen at the following link.
