Kerry has spent many hours over the past several days speaking to his counterparts. Kerry: Chemical weapons 'undeniable'

Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday called Syria’s use of chemical weapons “undeniable” and indicated that President Barack Obama is planning to take action in the coming days.

Setting the stage for eventual military intervention, Kerry said in a statement from the State Department that what is happening on the ground in Syria “is real and it is compelling” and requires a response from the international community. Attacks on civilians by Bashar Assad’s regime are, he said, “a moral obscenity” that “should shock the conscience of the world.”


“Make no mistake: President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people. Nothing today is more serious, and nothing is receiving more serious scrutiny,” Kerry later added.

( PHOTOS: Scenes from Syria)

In the coming days, Kerry said, the president will “be making an informed decision about how to respond to this indiscriminate use of chemical weapons.”

The president hasn’t yet decided on a response, but is working on next steps, the White House said. “He has not made that decision. And when he does, I’m sure you will hear from him,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said during his daily briefing, delayed so that Kerry could speak first.

Carney signaled that a military response is possible. “We have never taken a military response off the table and we’re certainly not doing that now,” he said. But he wouldn’t definitively say that the president is only considering military action, telling reporters: “I’m not going to engage in hypotheticals about decisions that haven’t been made.”

( Also on POLITICO: Obama, reluctant warrior)

Kerry said he has spent many hours over the past several days speaking to his counterparts around the world and consulting with members of Congress, while Obama has spoken to world leaders. Carney declined multiple requests by reporters to share the names of some of the lawmakers with whom the White House and the State Department have consulted. The White House reached out to House Speaker John Boehner’s staff on Monday afternoon, but there’s been “no briefing/consultation thus far,” spokesman Brendan Buck told POLITICO.

The secretary of state’s comments came as the Obama administration and its international allies weigh their options on how to respond to the Syrian army’s probable use of chemical weapons in attacks last week that killed hundreds of civilians.

Obama has long called the use of chemical weapons a “red line” that would trigger a forceful response from many of the world’s powers — though not from Russia, which continues to back Assad.

( Also on POLITICO: Barack Obama’s Syria challenge: A war-weary public)

The Obama administration is certain that chemical weapons have been deployed in Syria, and “there is very little doubt in our mind that the Syrian regime is culpable,” Carney said. Still, the administration continues working to confirm that Assad’s military deployed chemical weapons last week.

Earlier Monday, United Nations inspectors traveling toward the site of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria were fired on by snipers, according to the organization. They were nonetheless able to collect samples and had a “very productive” day, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters in New York.

While investigators are still gathering evidence, Kerry said, “our understanding of what has already happened in Syria is grounded in facts, informed by conscience and guided by common sense.”

( WATCH: John Kerry remarks on Syria)

Reports from humanitarian groups and the Syrian opposition “all strongly indicate that everything these images are already screaming at us is real, that chemical weapons were used in Syria,” he said.

The Assad regime’s continued denials about the use of chemical weapons and the alleged attacks on the U.N. inspectors “only further weakens the regime’s credibility” as evidence to the contrary piles up, Kerry said.

Assad on Monday dismissed chemical weapons allegations as politically motivated “nonsense” meant to justify Western military intervention. “Failure awaits the United States as in all previous wars it has unleashed, starting with Vietnam and up to the present day,” he told Russian newspaper Izvestia, according to Reuters.