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In this image taken from video obtained from the Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, smoke rises from buildings due to heavy artillery shelling in Barzeh, a district of Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013.

(AP)

U.S. Sen. Edward Markey said Tuesday that he would oppose the resolution passed by the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee authorizing the use of force in Syria.

The resolution would give President Barack Obama, a Democrat, authority to use limited military force, although not ground troops, in responding to the Syrian military's reported use of chemical weapons against its civilian population.

“I cannot support the resolution that passed the Foreign Relations Committee to use force in Syria because it is too broad, the effects of a strike are too unpredictable, and because I believe we must give diplomatic measures that could avoid military action a chance to work,” Markey said in a statement.

Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat and member of the committee, voted "present" when the resolution came up in the committee last week, where it passed 10-7. Markey said at the time that he needed to further review all the classified information, and he was concerned about language in the resolution that could expand the scope of U.S. military involvement in Syria beyond what is needed to deter Syrian President Bashar Assad from using chemical weapons. Republicans criticized Markey for lacking courage in refusing to take a stance.

Since then, additional members of Congress have come out against the use of force. According to a Washington Post count, 36 senators are against or leaning against military action and 25 support it. In the House, 250 representatives are against military action and only 26 support it. A large number of Republicans and many liberal Democrats oppose military intervention, and the divide is not along party lines.

Diplomatic efforts appeared to make some progress Tuesday. The Associated Press reported that Assad's government accepted a plan, proposed by Russia, to turn over its chemical weapons stockpile to international control. The AP reported that Obama is now supporting a plan for UN Security Council talks aimed at securing Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles. A bipartisan group of senators is working on crafting a resolution calling on the UN to remove Syria's chemical weapons – and giving Obama the authority to use military force if that does not happen.

06.18.2012 | WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Markey said he agrees with the administration’s intention of deterring and degrading the Assad government’s chemical weapons capability. He does not dispute the administration’s evidence indicating that Assad used chemical weapons. “However, I am concerned about the unintended consequences of the strikes and the potential for triggering an even greater conflagration that could be beyond our ability to predict or control,” Markey said.

Markey said he disagrees with an amendment to the resolution that expands it from an authorization for a surgical strike to endorsing regime change. He said he is worried that the use of force could draw American troops into the Syrian civil war.

Finally, he noted the latest developments, in which the Syrians, Russians, United Nations, and the international community are negotiating. “We should take advantage of this new diplomatic opportunity before we consider military action,” Markey said.

Markey said any resolution considered by Congress should include language that anticipates that force would not be used if Assad puts all of Syria’s chemical weapons under international control.

Markey, a liberal Democrat, was elected to the U.S. Senate in June, after more than three decades in the U.S. House. He was a strong critic of President George W. Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq, although he did vote to authorize that war in 2002.

Most of the Democrats vying to replace Markey in the U.S. House said Monday that they would also oppose the use of force in Syria.