- President Obama announced he would seek Congressional approval for military action against Syria in response to what the United States says was a chemical weapons attack against Syrian citizens on August 21. The U.S. claims more than 1,400 people were killed.
- The United Nations team of chemical weapons inspectors left Syria after conducting interviews with survivors and collecting evidence of the August 21 attack.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized potential U.S. intervention and dismissed claims that Syria used chemical weapons as “nonsense.”
- House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) lauded Obama’s decision to consult with Congress and said Congress would take up the President’s proposal when it returns on September 9.
- Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said they would not support a limited strike in Syria and called for greater involvement on the part of the U.S.
- Syrian forces resumed shelling of Damascus minutes after Obama announced that an attack on Syria was not imminent, witnesses said.
- President Obama spoke with French President Francois Hollande on Saturday and told him that it was “in the national security interest of the United States to take limited military action against the Syrian government to confront this atrocity, and informed him that he would call on the Congress to authorize the use of military force in Syria,” according to a White House release.
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Meredith Clark
Meredith Clark is a freelance writer and editor. She was previously a senior news producer for "Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj," a reporter with MSNBC.com, the digital politics and culture editor at Glamour and a senior news and politics editor at Refinery29. She has written for Vulture, Rolling Stone, Self, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast and Bustle.