US President Donald Trump says that he's changing his attitude towards Syrian President Bashar al Assad in the aftermath of Tuesday's chemical attack on civilians in the north of the country.
He called the attack an "affront to humanity" but stopped short of explaining how his policy towards Syria might shift.
Our Washington Correspondent Simon Marks reports.
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It took more than 24 hours, but President Trump finally found his voice on Syria.
On Tuesday, as news of the chemical attack sank in, the White House contented itself with the release of a 4 sentence statement on the appalling scenes near Idblib….and two of those sentences were devoted to blaming former President Barack Obama for the Syrian crisis.
But on Wednesday, flanked by King Abdullah of Jordan first in the Oval Office, President Trump spoke out.
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He found more words when he joined the King in the Rose Garden of the White House for a news conference.
Pressed by reporters to expand on his earlier comment, President Trump described himself as flexible on policy and hinted that he's having a change of heart about Syria and his willingness to tolerate President Bashar al Assad.
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He would not be drawn on what that means.
And he did once again voice criticism of President Barack Obama for not having done more to resolve the crisis in Syria….although at the time then plain old Donald Trump regularly took to social media to warn President Obama against the idea of intervention.
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Some Republicans are losing patience with President Trump's failure to call on Bashar al Assad to go….among them, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
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And others went further.
Former Republican Presidential aspirant Senator Marco Rubio from Florida suggested the Trump administration is complicit in the chemical attack by suggesting over the last week that Bashar al Assad will remain part of Syria's political reality.
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With Republicans piling onto their own President, Democrats aren't sitting on the sidelines.
Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia was Hillary Clinton's running mate in last year's Presidential election.
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At the United Nations, the US government openly challenged the Russians as debate began on a draft Security Council resolution penalizing the Syrian regime for the chemical strike.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley said Russia cannot escape responsibility for its continued efforts to excuse Bashar al Assad's behavior.
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But the Russians - once again - turned the tables at the UN, calling the draft resolution "destabilizing".
And it remains unclear whether US officials at the UN are speaking for their own President.
Unveiling news of his "change of heart" over Syria….President Trump did not once use suggest that he's having any kind of rethink over Russia's involvement there.
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