Syria News: Obama to Seek Congressional Authorization Before Military Strike Against Syria

On Saturday, President Barack Obama announced that the United States "should take military action against Syrian targets" over its alleged use of chemical weapons in a speech delivered at the White House Rose Garden. However, he said he will would congressional authorization before launching any military action against the Syrian regime.

In the televised speech, the president appealed for members of Congress to consider their responsibilities and values in debating U.S. military action over Syria's chemical weapons use that allegedly killed 1,429 people, reports NBC News.

"Today I'm asking Congress to send a message to the world that we are united as one nation," he said.

Obama said top congressional leaders had agreed to schedule a debate when the body returns to Washington, DC September 9.

"Our intelligence shows the Assad regime and its forces preparing to use chemical weapons, launching rockets in the highly populated suburbs of Damascus, and acknowledging that a chemical weapons attack took place. And all of this corroborates what the world can plainly see -- hospitals overflowing with victims; terrible images of the dead. All told, well over 1,000 people were murdered. Several hundred of them were children -- young girls and boys gassed to death by their own government, " said Obama, reports CNN.

He continued, "This attack is an assault on human dignity. It also presents a serious danger to our national security. It risks making a mockery of the global prohibition on the use of chemical weapons. It endangers our friends and our partners along Syria's borders, including Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq. It could lead to escalating use of chemical weapons, or their proliferation to terrorist groups who would do our people harm."

Obama's remarks came shortly after U.N. inspectors left Syria, carrying evidence that will determine whether chemical weapons were used in an attack last week in a Damascus suburb. However, a key issue has been over who exactly used the weapons in the reported toxic gas attack in a Damascus suburb on August 21.

Top U.S. officials have said there's no doubt that the Syrian government was behind it, while Syrian officials have denied responsibility and blamed jihadists fighting with the rebels.