Hillary Clinton supports military strike on Syria

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced Monday that she supports President Obama's call for a military strike on Syria and urged Congress to vote to back him.

"I will continue to support his efforts, and I hope the Congress will as well," Clinton said at a White House event, after she discussed the latest developments on Syria with Mr. Obama earlier in the day. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced Monday that the Senate will hold the first congressional vote to authorize military action in Syria this Wednesday, which will be a procedural vote to begin debate.

Meanwhile, while still pressing for Congress to authorize U.S. military force in Syria, Obama administration officials on Monday said they would consider Russia's new proposal for Syria to avert a U.S. military strike by placing its chemical weapons under international control and dismantling them quickly.

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Clinton supports that as well but only if it's not a delaying tactic, she said.

"If the regime immediately surrendered its stockpiles to international control as was suggested by Secretary Kerry and the Russians, that would be an important step," Clinton said. "But this cannot be another excuse for delay or obstruction, and Russia has to support the international community's efforts sincerely or be held to account."

She said the current discussions "only could take place in the context of a credible military threat by the United States."

Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken told reporters at a White House press briefing Monday, "We want to take a hard look at the proposal," adding, "We would welcome a decision and action by Syria to give up its chemical weapons."

Blinken said "the whole point of what we're doing" is to stop Syrian President Bashar Assad from using chemical weapons in the future. However, he added, "It's very important to note that it's clear that this proposal comes in the context of the threat of U.S. action and the pressure that the president is exerting. So it's even more important that we don't take the pressure off and that Congress give the president the authority he's requested."

The Russian proposal, put forward by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, came hours after Secretary of State John Kerry said Assad could resolve the crisis by giving up "every single bit" of his arsenal to the international community by the end of the week. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki later clarified Kerry's remarks, saying, "Secretary Kerry was making a rhetorical argument about the impossibility and unlikelihood of Assad turning over chemical weapons he has denied he used."

Blinken similarly said Monday that he believed Kerry was "speaking hypothetically."

"Of course we would welcome Assad giving up his chemical weapons... in a verifiable manner," he said.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Kerry spoke with Lavrov by phone on Monday, though she declined to give any details of their conversation. She also said the U.S. would take a "hard look" at the Russian proposal.

Syria's foreign minister on Monday said his country welcomes Russia's proposal to avert U.S. military action, and United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon also said he welcomed the proposal. Syria's response marked the first official acknowledgement from the Assad regime that it possesses chemical weapons -- in an interview conducted Sunday, Assad told Charlie Rose that he could not acknowledge their weapons stockpile.

Noting their refusal up to this point to acknowledge the existence of those weapons, White House spokesman Jay Carney on Monday said that while the U.S. will "work with the Russians and speak with them" about their proposal, "We would have some skepticism about the Assad regime's credibility."