LARRY DOWNING/AP - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, shake hands after making statements following meetings regarding Syria in Geneva, Switzerland on Saturday.
The agreement will be backed by a U.N. Security Council resolution that could allow for sanctions or other consequences if Syria fails to comply, Secretary of State John F. Kerry said.
Many members who voted for tough stance on Syria now oppose military action
105 current members of Congress voted in favor of the Syria
Accountability Act but now oppose or are leaning against authorizing
military force.
Latest stories on Syria
U.S., Russia reach deal on Syrian chemical weapons
The accord will be backed by a U.N. Security Council resolution specifying consequences if Syria fails to comply.
U.S., Russia reach deal on Syrian weapons
The agreement will be backed by a U.N. Security Council resolution
that could allow for sanctions or other consequences if Syria fails to
comply.
Possible path to end war seen in Syria arms talks
Diplomats launch a second day of talks in Geneva aimed at disposing of Syria’s chemical weapons.
Fine Print: Syria is no horse race
Obama and Putin each has played a critical role so far; rating who is ahead or behind is the wrong way to go.
Kerry said that the first international inspection of Syrian chemical weapons will take place by November, with destruction to begin next year.
“Providing this effort is fully implemented, it can end the threat that these weapons pose not only to the Syrian people but to their neighbors, to the region,” and the rest of the world, he said.
Lavrov stressed that the documents released Saturday constitute an “agreed proposal” that does not yet have the force of law.
Senior administration officials had said Friday that the Obama administration would not press for U.N. authorization to use force against Syria if it reneges on any agreement to give up its chemical weapons.
One fear throughout the more than two-year civil war has been that the weapons would fall under the control of militant groups or that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, if desperate enough, could sell them to the highest bidder.
Syrian rebel commander Gen. Salim Idriss reiterated his rejection of the Russian initiative Saturday, saying that it effectively leaves Assad unpunished for an alleged chemical weapons attack in Damascus on Aug. 21.
“What about the murderer Bashar who gave the order? Should we forget him?” he said, speaking at a televised press conference in Istanbul. “We feel let down by the international community. We don’t have any hope.”
Idriss said that the United States and other international allies of the Syrian opposition are backing the Russian deal despite knowing that it is a ploy to protect the Syrian government. Russia and Syria are “playing games” to buy more time, he said, adding that with the focus now on chemical weapons, the Syrians killed by other weapons such as Scud missiles have been forgotten.
He implored the international community to give further assistance.
“Don’t leave the Syrians alone, facing and resisting this criminal regime,” he said. “We feel let down by the international community. We don’t have any hope.”
U.S. officials traveling with Kerry said the United States believes the Syrian government’s approximately 1,000 metric tons of chemical weapons material is housed among at least 45 sites, about half of which now contain material that could be used as weapons. U.S. intelligence has tracked movement of some of the material during the war, the officials said.
The stockpile contains both blister agents such as mustard gas and nerve agents such as sarin, the gas believed responsible for the Aug. 21 attack, one official said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss some previously classified assessments and to describe the closed-door negotiations in Geneva.
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