But White House says President Barack Obama cannot take action without conclusive proof regime of Basha al-Assad crossed ‘red line’ with use of nerve agent sarin WASHINGTON — The White House said on Thursday that the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad had probably used chemical weapons on a small scale in the country’s civil war but insisted President Barack Obama needed definitive proof before he would take action.The disclosure created a quandary for Mr Obama, who has set the use of chemical weapons as a "red line" Mr Assad must not cross.It triggered calls from some hawkish Washington legislators for a US military response, which the president has resisted.In a shift from a White House assessment just days earlier, US officials said the intelligence community believed with "varying degrees of confidence" that the chemical nerve agent sarin was used by Mr Assad’s forces against rebel fighters. But it noted that "the chain of custody is not clear."While Mr Obama has dec...
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