House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio listens as President Barack Obama speaks to media, in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington. Mr Boehner said he will support the president's call for the US to take action against Syria for alleged chemical weapons use. Credit:AP Mr Obama warned as he met key congressional leaders at the White House that Assad must pay a price for violating an international norm by unleashing what the US has said was sarin gas on a Damascus suburb last month. The use of such weapons not only resulted in ‘‘grotesque deaths’’ but also risked falling into the hands of terror groups or ‘‘non-state actors,’’ Mr Obama warned.‘‘That poses a serious national security threat to the United States and to the region,’’ Mr Obama said. ‘‘And as a consequence, Assad and Syria needs to be held accountable.’’ Just over an hour later, John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives - who has fought tooth and nail with Obama on domestic policy - emerged from the West Wing with a firm endorsement of the president’s strategy.

‘‘I am going to support the president’s call for action,’’ Mr Boehner said. ‘‘This is something that the United States as a country needs to do,’’ Mr Boehner said, adding that he believed his colleagues should also support Obama’s request for authorisation to use military force. Moments later, another key Republican, House majority leader Eric Cantor, who is popular with the party’s conservative rank and file, also backed Mr Obama’s stance. Inaction ’would embolden Iran, N.Korea’ The endorsement from Republican House leaders came as the US Secretary of State John Kerry built the case for action in the Senate. Failure to take military action against Syria will send a dangerous signal to Iran, North Korea and other US foes, he told senators.

‘‘Iran is hoping you look the other way,’’ Mr Kerry told politicians, as he made the case for Congress to endorse punitive US strikes against the Syrian regime over its suspected use of chemical weapons. ‘‘Our inaction would surely give them (Iran) a permission slip for them to at least misinterpret our intention, if not to put it to the test,’’ Mr Kerry told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Hezbollah militants in Lebanon are ‘‘hoping that isolationism will prevail,’’ and ‘‘North Korea is hoping that ambivalence carries the day,’’ he said. ‘‘They are all listening for our silence.’’Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel offered a similar view, arguing that if the US chose not to act, it would appear weak in the showdown with Iran over its nuclear program. ‘‘A refusal to act would undermine the credibility of America’s other security commitments, including the president’s commitment to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,’’ Hagel told the same hearing.

‘‘The word of the United States must mean something.’’ The US has repeatedly refused to rule out military action against Iran over its disputed nuclear program and Israel has pressed Washington to issue tough language vowing to prevent Tehran from acquiring atomic weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is entirely peaceful. Mr Hagel also said South Korea’s defence minister had expressed concern about how Pyongyang would interpret the US response to the Syria crisis. US allies ‘‘must be assured that the United States will fulfil its security commitments,’’ he said.

Mr Hagel says Hezbollah or other militant groups could opt to acquire or use chemical weapons if Washington failed to punish Damascus. More than 100,000 people have died since the rebellion to oust long-time leader Assad erupted in March 2011. The UN refugee agency on Tuesday revealed that some two million Syrians have now fled the country. Loading Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, described the figures as a ‘‘disgraceful humanitarian calamity with suffering and displacement unparalleled in recent history’’.

AFP