WASHINGTON — With the announcement on
Saturday that the U.S. and Russia have reached an
agreement______________Syria’s chemical
weapons stockpile, the American threat of U.S.
military action was effectively taken off the table.
After more than two weeks of saber-rattling —
and an unsuccessful effort by President Obama to
win congressional and public support for a limited
military strike — it was a last-minute diplomatic
push led by the Russians that saved the day.
But the Obama administration is wading into the
deal — which will undoubtedly be scrutinized by a
Congress that is distrustful of Russian President
Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar Assad
— with eyes wide open.
“The international community expects the Assad
regime to live up to its public commitments,”
Obama said in a statement Saturday afternoon.
“While we have made important progress, much
more work remains to be done.”
Secretary of State John Kerry was even more
blunt about U.S. caution.
“We have committed to a standard that says verify
and verify,” Kerry __________ at news conference
in Geneva, where he and his Russian counterpart,
Sergey Lavrov, announced the framework of the
agreement to secure and destroy the Syrian
chemical weapons stockpile.
In previous comments, Obama has made clear
that trusting the Russians and Assad will not be easy.
The president’s relationship with Putin is
famously tense, with the two sparring over Syria
policy and Putin’s decision to give temporary
asylum to former National Security Agency
contractor Edward Snowden after he leaked a
treasure trove of classified information on U.S.
intelligence surveillance practices.
(Disponível em: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/14/us-russia-syria-agreement/2813435/-Aamer Madhani, USATODAY12:38 p.m. EDTSeptember 14, 2013)
Assinale a alternativa que completa correta e respectivamente as lacunas das linhas 3 e 24, do texto 1.
