Israel Matzav

Syria to place its chemical weapons arsenal under 'international control'

Because this has worked so well in so many other conflicts where the UN has gotten involved.... Syria is turning its chemical weapons over to 'international control.'

The Assad regime’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, was quoted telling the speaker of the Russian parliament that the terms decided upon with his counterpart Sergei Lavrov would “remove the grounds for American aggression”.

“We held a very fruitful round of talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday, and he proposed an initiative relating to chemical weapons. And in the evening we agreed to the Russian initiative,” Mr Moualem said.

The news came as France attempted to reclaim its role as one of the leaders in the diplomatic initiative against Syria, calling for the UN Security Council to provide a “binding resolution with a short timeframe” forcing Bashar al-Assad to give up the weapons stockpile.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the Syrian government must be made to reveal the full extent of its chemical programme immediately, and that France would put forward a proposal to the UN for a resolution today.

In a communiqué from Mr Fabius to Washington dated yesterday, the minister spoke of the “severe consequences” for the regime if it would not comply with calls for its weapons to be placed under international control.

That plan was initially put forward – apparently accidentally – by US Secretary of State John Kerry, and it has since been seized upon by Russia as a possible route to avoiding international military conflict.

Mr Fabius said: “The Russian foreign minister made an offer… [but] this cannot be used as a manoeuvre to divert us.”

 And now they'll insist that Israel do the same. What could go wrong?

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, chemical weapons, Russia, Syria, United Nations

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:31 PM