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At least 116 American lawmakers have asked President Barack Obama to seek Congressional approval for any military strike against Syria in response to alleged use of chemical weapons in the Arab country.
A letter signed by 116 Congressmen - 98 Republicans and 18 Democrats - was sent to Obama as the State Department said that it would brief the Congress in a classified setting on the intelligence related to the alleged chemical attack by the Assad regime in a Damascus suburb last week.
The lawmakers in their letter expressed disapproval at the President's intervention in Libya without prior statutory authorisation, and said that Congress stood ready to return to session to consider the facts in Syria.
"We strongly urge you to consult and receive authorisation from Congress before ordering the use of US military force in Syria. Your responsibility to do so is prescribed in the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973," said the letter spearheaded by Congressman Scott Rigell.
"If you deem that military action in Syria is necessary, Congress can reconvene at your request. We stand ready to come back into session, consider the facts before us, and share the burden of decisions made regarding US involvement in the quickly escalating Syrian conflict," the lawmakers wrote.
In an interview to the CNN, Republican Senator Bob Corker, ranking member of the Foreign Relations Committee, urged Obama to call Congress back to Washington to seek approval for possible surgical, proportional military action in Syria.
"The administration has consulted and we have been aggressive, candidly, about being consulted. I do think we would be so much better off if the administration would come to Congress, call everybody back and let Congress authorize this activity," said Corker.
In terms of the US foreign policy goals in Syria, Corker said, "I don't want what we may be getting ready to do with Syria to take us away from the stated strategy and policy of insuring that we don't get directly involved in any kind of quagmire relative to civil war. I think what the president is proposing, a surgical, proportional strike, is called for here assuming the intelligence briefing that I get justify those actions.
