Kerry's cosy dinner with Syria's Assad
Secretary of State Kerry and the man he likened to German dictator are pictured dining with their wives at Damascus restaurant before civil war broke out.
● An astonishing photograph of John Kerry having a cozy and intimate dinner with Bashar al-Assad has emerged at the moment the U.S Secretary of State is making the case to bomb the Syrian dictator's country and remove him from power.
● Kerry, who compared Assad to Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein [recently], is pictured around a small table with his wife Teresa Heinz and the Assads in 2009. Assad and Kerry, then a Massachusetts senator, lean in towards each other and appear deep in conversation as their spouses look on. A waiter is pictured at their side with a tray of green drinks, believed to be lemon and crushed mint.
● The picture was likely taken in February 2009 in the Naranj restaurant in Damascus, when Kerry led a delegation to Syria to discuss finding a way forward for peace in the region.
● While President Barack Obama has softened his military threat against Syria by putting the question to Congress and guaranteeing at least a week's delay, Kerry remains outspoken about the dangers posed by the Syrian regime government. He said that Assad 'has now joined the list of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein' in deploying chemical weapons against his own people. Kerry said claimed Sunday that the U.S. now has evidence that sarin nerve gas was used in Syria and that 'the case gets stronger by the day' for a military attack.