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Assad accepts Russia’s plan to avoid strikes
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Momentum to avoid Western missile strikes on Syria intensified yesterday, as President Bashar Assad’s government accepted a plan to turn over its chemical weapons stockpile and France pitched a UN Security Council resolution to verify the disarmament.
With domestic support for a strike uncertain in the United States and little international appetite to join forces against Assad, the developments had the potential to blunt a thorny diplomatic problem and allow the Obama administration to back away from military action.
Syria’s foreign minister said the government would accept a plan from Russia to give up its chemical weapons in order “to thwart US aggression.”
France will start the process at the United Nations under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which is militarily enforceable, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters.
Unacceptable
However, Russia told France a proposal to adopt a UN Security Council resolution holding the Syrian government responsible for the possible use of chemical weapons was unacceptable.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his French counterpart Moscow would propose a UN draft declaration supporting its initiative to put Syria’s chemical weapons under international control.
US President Barack Obama expressed support for UN Security Council talks aimed at a diplomatic breakthrough that would allow Syria’s government to avoid US missile strikes if it surrenders its chemical weapons.
But Obama was still going to Congress to push his original plan of airstrikes in case the new effort fails.
Obama discussed the plan for UN talks with French President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron before meeting senators who are increasingly wary of US military intervention.
Fabius said the French resolution would demand Syria open its chemical weapons program to inspection, place it under international control, and ultimately dismantle it. A violation of that commitment, he said, would carry “very serious consequences.”
The details and timeframe of the French proposal remained vague, but Fabius said he expected a “nearly immediate” and tangible commitment from Syria. Within two hours, he had a response from Syrian counterpart Walid Moallem.
“We agreed to the Russian initiative as it should thwart the US aggression against our country,” he said.
Russia is now working with Damascus to prepare a detailed plan of action that will be presented soon, Lavrov said. Russia will then be ready to finalize the plan with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Obama cautiously welcomed developments.
“The key is, to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, that we don’t just trust, but we also verify,” Obama told CBS. “The importance is to make sure that the international community has confidence that these chemical weapons are under control, that they are not being used, that potentially they are removed from Syria and that they are destroyed.”
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said of the Russian proposal: “As long as it eases the tension and helps maintain Syrian and regional peace and stability, and helps politically settle the issue, the global community should consider it positively.”
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