Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner on Tuesday expressed his support for military action against Syria, saying it is "something the United States as a country needs to do."
"I'm going to support the president's call for action [on Syria]," Boehner said. "I believe that my colleagues should support this call for action."
Boehner's support comes days after President Barack Obama said he would seek congressional authorization for a strike against Syria after evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime used chemical weapons in an attack on the Damascus suburbs last month.
"We have enemies around the world that need to understand that we are not going tolerate this type of behavior," Boehner said, adding "the use of these weapons has to be responded to" and "only the United States has the capability and capacity" to do so.
Following Boehner's comments, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor also said he will vote for a resolution authorizing a military strike.
"I intend to vote to provide the President of the United States the option to use military force in Syria," Cantor said in a statement. "America has a compelling national security interest to prevent and respond to the use of weapons of mass destruction, especially by a terrorist state such as Syria, and to prevent further instability in a region of vital interest to the United States."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said on Saturday that "it is a pillar of America's security that we must stop the use and proliferation of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons."
"As the President stated today, military action in response to Assad's reckless use of deadly gas that is limited in scope and duration, without boots on the ground, is in our national security interest and in furtherance of regional stability and global security," she added in a statement.
Last week Boehner sent an open letter to President Obama asking him to “clearly articulate” to Congress the “objectives, policy, and strategy for any potential intervention in Syria.”
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