President Barack Obama met with Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham on Monday afternoon at the White House, in an effort to continue lobbying support convincing Congress to authorize military action against Bashar al-Assad's regime over an alleged chemical weapons attack on August 21, NBC News reported.
After meeting with the U.S. President, John McCain told reporters that he called upon a resolution that "a majority of the members of both houses can support." McCain said,
"I think it would be catastrophic," if the resolution was not passed, McCain said, adding that such a move would "undermine the credibility of the United States."
Secretary of State John Kerry also called 120 House Democrats on Monday, reminding that they face a "Munich Moment," a reference to the 1938 Munich Pact, likening this moment in history to when Europe enabled Nazi Gemany to gain control of Czechoslovakia.
In a 70-minute conference call, Kerry derided Syrian President Bashar Assad as a "two-bit dictator" who will "continue to act with impunity," urging lawmakers to back President Obama's plan for "limited, narrow" strikes against the regime, Politico reported.
However, Syria's staunchest weapons provider Russia disagreed with Kerry's assessment.
"We were shown certain pieces of evidence that did not contain anything concrete, neither geographical locations, nor names, nor evidence that samples had been taken by professionals," Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said, as reported by The New York Times.
Congress is due to recovene next week to vote on whether the U.S. will authorize strikes on pro-Assad's forces, and drastically dismantle his weaponry.
The Syrian Civil War has killed over 100,000 people, according to UN estimates.
Obama's decision to delay the use of strikes on the Assad regime until approval from Congress has been met with both ridicule and praise worldwide.
